Finding a bit of Scotland in Dunedin

We’ve been hearing for a while that much of Southland was populated by Scottish settlers. On the Southern Scenic Highway that took us through the Catlins, Scottish place names like Maclennan, Glenledi, and Allanton were readily available supporting evidence. But the town that really proves the point is Dunedin, NZ’s bastion of Scotsdom. There are Scottish clothing stores, restaurants, and even a gigantic statue of the nation’s poet laureate, Robert Burns, sitting squarely across from the cathedral in the middle of town. As fate would have it, we entered town with craving not for haggis and bangers’n’mash, but something on the lighter, more vegetable-oriented side, so we ended up eating at an asian fusion place in the middle of town and then watching the new Star Wars movie. Regardless though, it was fun to spend a couple days experiencing an area that has proudly preserved a culture that it imported from the other side of the world over 150 years ago. (Literally the other side – the point globally opposite of NZ is near the Atlantic side of the Bay of Biscay between the UK, France, and Spain.)

Folks here readily identify Dunedin with ‘students’, given the huge university in town. So in addition to there being lots of places to eat, there’s a big arts scene. We participated by visiting a medium sized gallery/museum downtown featuring a wide range of styles but focused on NZ artists. The gallery was funded by a very successful Dunedin family in the early 20th century, and has been a free resource to the city ever since. Very cool.

Speaking of successful Dunedin families, we visited the home of a different one… because it’s the only castle in NZ. What would a Scottish city be without a castle, right? Right. Larnach Castle is up on a hilltop on a peninsula overlooking Dunedin across the water on one side, and the Pacific across rolling hills on the other. It’s amazingly well maintained and very scenic. The offer a daily high tea at 3pm that we ended up missing, but our quick lunch snack at the cafe there was tasty nonetheless. Though we found it hard to avoid the droves of people dropped off by tour bus every five minutes at the front door, we enjoyed strolling around the grounds and checking out the views. Mr. Burns would probably have been quite moved by the aristocratic countryside retreat it’s become.