Verdant Works is a former jute mill, restored as a museum of the industry that built modern Dundee. At the height of the jute trade in the 1880s, more than half of the city's working population was employed in the mills — most of them women, since the work paid worse than men were willing to accept. Verdant tells the story of the trade from the raw fibre arriving from Calcutta to the finished sacking used by the British Empire to ship everything from sugar to sandbags.
The original looms and carding machines still run on selected days. The galleries also cover the broader context: the conditions in the mills, the role of Indian labour, the rise of the jute barons and the Pre-Raphaelite art they collected. A combined ticket with RRS Discovery is good value. Allow ninety minutes.