In the early part of the eighteenth century there was a regular trade between Dundee and different ports in North America, particularly with Charleston, South Carolina, which was at that time still a British colony.

When ships from foreign ports arrived in Dundee they were required to quarantine for a period and had to anchor in the river at a place that came to be called Carolina Roads.

By 1801 the glassworks had closed down and William Lindsay, a corn merchant originally from Edinburgh with a business premises in Dundee High Street, had moved into the main house and let the cottages to tenants, and the property seems to have been called Carolina Port from that time.

On the evening of Wednesday 4 December 1816 a mob assembled in Hawkhill, to the west of the city, and burned an effigy of Mr Thomson, a local corn dealer.

[6] William Lindsay, Provost of Dundee from 1831 to 1833, sought damages from the railway company for their incursion onto his property and interference with his business but ultimately lost his case.

[5] In 1837 Lindsay had, in company with his business partner John Peter of Broughty Ferry, borrowed the sum of £5,000 sterling with the Carolina Port property as security.

The loan was from a charitable trust known as Morton Mortification which rendered relief to the poor of the city, and was operated by a board of trustees.

[7] In 1853 the trustees of Morton Mortification took an action to recover their debt against the eldest surviving son, Martin Lindsay, who was at that time believed to be in Italy.

[8] In 1866 they brought the property up for public auction and at that time the true heirs realised their position and after a hearing before Lord Barcaple at the Court of Session in Edinburgh the two parties agreed that the property would revert to the executors of the estate of William Lindsay on payment of the debt owed to Morton Mortification, which by that time totalled £12,000 sterling.

[9] The property, approximately seven acres in extent, was at that time described as, "perhaps the most valuable piece of ground within a like distance of the High Street in the town of Dundee.

[21][22] The Cattle Market, however, was not a commercial success and as early as October 1881, on the retirement of Provost William Brownlee, he was openly mocked in the newspapers for the "Carolina Port Bungle.

"[25] In September 1880 twenty-year-old Miss Gillespie, from Glasgow, swam from the Tay Bridge to Broughty Castle, a distance of four and a quarter miles in one hour and eighteen minutes.

[26] Four years later Ye Amphibious Ancients Bathing Association was founded in Dundee to promote open water swimming.

Cyclists came from as far away as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, and Arbroath to compete, there was a lone New Zealander and thirty eight entrants from two different cycle clubs in Dundee.

[36] A deputation from the City Council led by Provost Hugh Ballingall had approached the society as long ago as 1885 with a view to bringing the show to Dundee for the first time since 1843, but nothing came of it on that occasion.

Leng, who was also the editor of the Dundee Advertiser, was principally interested in creating a cycling track for the city but the suggestion was made that it could be for more than one purpose.

In August 1890 the Harbour Board had opened at the eastern end of the reclaimed land a new cattle dock for importing cattle from abroad, and in October 1890 they had granted a lease for a local confectionary company called Lindsay & Low to build a jam factory, known as the Preserve Works, to be constructed at the western end, closer to the shipbuilding yards.

[46] They offered 2000 shares at 10 shillings each to raise the capital required to develop their athletic grounds and sent a deputation to Ibrox Park, Glasgow, which they used as the model for their cycle track.

The weather was not conducive to good performance with rain starting about two hours before the meeting and it fell almost continuously throughout, so no records were established and only a few hundred spectators turned out to watch.

in 1893, it was generally assumed that the new club – which had immediately secured election to the Scottish Football League – would base themselves at Carolina Port, which was the most developed ground in Dundee at that time.

Hemmed in amongst Dundee's harbour and overlooked by a huge pile of shale nicknamed the "burning mountain",[56] future development of the stadium would be difficult.