Camperdown Park, the largest of Dundee's parks, is the location for Camperdown House, built in 1828 for Robert Duncan, Earl of Camperdown and son of Admiral Duncan, who defeated the Dutch at the Battle of Camperdown in 1797.

The park was offically opened to the public in 1946; it houses a wildlife centre, with more than 300 animals, and various other recreational facilities.

Camperdown is famous in gardens worldwide as the origin of the Camperdown Elm, which was discovered about 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 in the world is from a cutting taken from that original tree and is grafted on a U. glabra trunk.