Community Heritage Grant Projects

In 2025 the Trust employed a Community Engagement Advisor for the first time. Mylene Herd developed a new community heritage grant scheme and several projects have been funded already. Find out more below.

Dundee Museum of Transport

Dundee Historic Environment Trust contributed £18,900 to Dundee Museum of Transport’s Oor Trams project. The exhibition opened June 2026.

Dundee Museum of Transport said:

“We are very grateful to DHET for your support for this special exhibition at Dundee Museum of Transport.  The exhibition marks the 70th anniversary of Dundee’s last tram, shares memories from those who remember the tram era, and encourages visitors to see new significance in our built environment. 

The exhibition development project has included setting up an oral history programme: we have worked with an oral history specialist to gather people’s stories and the exhibition will be used as a springboard to gather more.  This is the exciting commencement of an Oral History Archive that will be a key feature of our community engagement and collection strategies in future.   We have used an interpretation specialist to ensure that we present the story of the tram is a way that will be an accessible and engaging as possible.   In both interpretation and oral history, this project has helped to up-skill our own team, which will have long-lasting impact on our work. 

Maryfield and Lochee feature throughout the exhibition, with images of these areas and beyond, highlighting their role in the tram story, and giving glimpses into lives lived in these places. Moreover, through this project, we have made our own discoveries: we have found that the relics of a tram (in fact the only remaining Dundee electric tram) are hidden inside a shed at City Road allotments. We believe that this makes Dundee unique in UK tramway history, as the only tram system to have surviving examples of horse, steam and electric trams. We have now started planning work to remove and preserve these tram remains. We also recently found that some tram rails were still hiding under our feet in Union Street. This tram line was closed in 1919, and it was thought that all tracks had been removed. However, small sections of rail were dug up during the transformation and pedestrianisation work currently underway.

Hearing Voices Network

We granted £2,460 to the Hearing Voices Network Dundee at HaVeN. Our Voices, Our Dundee is a wellbeing and heritage engagement project designed for adults in Dundee who live with mental health conditions and hear voices. The project uses the city’s rich historic environment to promote connection, confidence, and recovery through creative and sensory activities. 

Michelle Ritchie, Operations Manager of the Hearing Voices Network, said:

“The funding we have received from Dundee Historic Environment Trust has opened up valuable opportunities for our community members to get out into the city and experience places and activities they may never otherwise have had the chance to visit.

Exploring Dundee’s rich history, heritage and environment has been an inspiring and rewarding experience for our members, many of whom would otherwise spend most of their time within our community hub. These visits have encouraged learning, curiosity and a stronger connection to their local community and its history.

The project has also delivered significant social benefits. Following each outing, staff, volunteers and community members come together over a coffee to reflect on their experiences, share what they enjoyed most, and discuss their thoughts and feelings about the places they visited. These conversations have strengthened relationships, built confidence, and created lasting memories.

Thanks to this funding, our community members will enjoy a full year of opportunities to explore and engage with Dundee’s historic sites and heritage, enriching their lives and deepening their connection to the city they call home.”

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