Camperdown, Dundee

, best known for Camperdown Park, which is the largest park in the city.

The name is Dutch in origin, being the English version of Kamperduin, a village of the North Holland province (north of Haarlem) on the North Sea coast of the Netherlands. This is because Adam Duncan (1 July 1731 - 4 August 1804), defeated the Dutch fleet off there on 11 October 1797 in the Battle of Camperdown. Camperdown House was in turn named after this, and then gave its name to the area.

Camperdown Park

Camperdown Park is the location of Camperdown House, built in 1828 for Robert Dundas Haldane-Duncan, 1st Earl of Camperdown and son of Admiral Duncan. The park was officially opened to the public in 1946; it houses a wildlife centre, with more than 300 animals, and other recreational facilities.

Camperdown is notable in gardening as the origin of the Camperdown Elm, which was discovered circa 1835 - 1840 by the Earl of Camperdown’s head forester, David Taylor, who noticed a mutant contorted Wych Elm branch sprawling along the ground. The earl's gardener produced the first Camperdown Elm by grafting it to the trunk of a normal Wych Elm ("Ulmus glabra"). Every Camperdown Elm is from a cutting taken from that original tree and is grafted on a "U. glabra" trunk.

The park made the news headlines in 1986 when "Jeremy", its brown bear, bit the arm off ten-year-old Ross Prendergast, who had sneaked into the park after-hours. [ [http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2004/08/03/newsstory6180894t0.asp "Size of bear enclosure set to be increased"] - "The Courier"] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=lIhDM6otFKYC&pg=PA467&lpg=PA467&dq=jeremy+bear+camperdown+park&source=web&ots=2lmnX3vjLw&sig=qsy8eGfhQZzG5x2jlfhQr0EMvj4&hl=en "The Mammoth Book of Maneaters" - Google Book Search] ]

Camperdown Park was the venue of Radio 1's Big Weekend, in May 2006. Acts including headliners Muse, P!nk, Keane, Sugababes, Snow Patrol and then small local band The View performed to more than thirty thousand fans during the 2 day event.

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