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Kevy: Walk along the Tay with the river on your right hand side, you will see a stone monolith. There’s a matching stone monolith on the far side of the bridge, sticking up, situated on the middle of the roundabout on the Fife side. No one knows why they are here.
Anna: The Tay road bridge, designed by William Fairhurst, was opened in 1966 by the Queen Mother allowing her to get home to Glamis without having to go via Perth.
Anna: When it was opened, the bridge was the longest road bridge in the country. Fife council successfully requested that a toll be placed on the bridge meaning that anyone wishing to leave Dundee would have to pay.
His: People rallied, and using their extensive skills learned in shipbuilding and engineering, they built the tay rope slide to allow people to cross from Dundee to Fife without paying the toll.
Anna: The rope slide existed and was in pretty much constant use until the abolition of the toll on 10 February 2008. When it became free to cross into Fife, visitor numbers exiting Dundee dropped. Dundonians only want to do things they’re forbidden from and they felt Fife had lost its allure once it was open to all, regardless of income. The miniature watch tower is all that remains and is now only used occasionally to monitor basking shark activity.
Kevy: Over the years, various attempts were made to build a tunnel under the Tay between Fife and Dundee. However after several collapsed tunnel incidents, the tunnelling was abandoned.
Anna: Interestingly, during the aborted tunnelling, the workers discovered that the abundant seaweed found here is very beneficial to many skin problems. It was discovered that if the complainant burst the seaweed polyps and applied the liquid to the skin, it helped clear up many issues from syphilis scars to mill burns.