Running her finger down an oil stained wall, Alison Carrie felt like she was touching the ghost of the past.

The 31-year-old was fascinated as she wandered around the basement of a building once at the centre of Dundee's booming jute industry dotted with small remnants from its past life.

From metal shelves jutting out the wall which would have once housed the pit wheel to specially engineered iron beams, Alison's impromptu research into the history of these mills led her on a trail around all 37 of the city's remaining buildings.

She started her research as no more than a hobby while she was in-between jobs; her carpentry and joinery background meant she was quickly swept up in the history of the buildings, turning into a bit of an accidental author on the subject.

"I have always liked old buildings," Alison says. "I think it is the mystery of not knowing what they used to do.

"I am not native to Dundee, I'm from Kirriemuir, so when I would go into Dundee to do shopping, I would see these big buildings and wonder what they were about.

"What especially intrigued me was that they are all different with each and every one having its own build style and its own series of adaptions and alterations through time.

"Most were originally built to deal with flax, then later adapted to suit working with jute."

Dundee has long been associated with jute and the mills in which it was produced. In 1820 the first 20 bales of jute were unloaded at Dundee docks in a city ready to adapt.

It was already home to a weaving industry, a whaling industry - with the oil needed to soften jute - and a shipbuilding industry, which allowed the raw material and finished product to be easily transported.

At its peak in the 1860s and 1870s, the industry employed around 50,000 people. It was not, however, without its problems and the mills were known for its poor working conditions with low wages for the workers - the majority of which were women and children.

In these dusty mills, injuries, accidents and occupational hazards were also commonplace.

Demand for jute products was greatest during the first and second world wars when packing and sandbags were needed in large quantities.

But by the early 20th century, Calcutta had overtaken Dundee as the leading producer of jute, with many from the industry moving to India to set up mills.

Today, a statue in Lochee, which was at the heart of the mill area, pays tribute to the former workers of these mills.

Today, the remaining buildings have been converted into everything from studio spaces to flats and businesses, with one of the old mills now hosting a jute museum called Verdant Works.

As well as volunteering at the museum, Alison thinks it is important the heritage behind these longstanding bricks are remembered.

"When I got access to the Upper Dens mill, they let me go upstairs. The trusses and things up there are beautiful and they are all done in cast iron and in a Gothic style," she says.

"Unusually in Dundee, the mills were built and designed by engineers and not by architects. The engineers understood why the buildings had to be the way they were.

"The buildings were designed around the machines that were used, so pillars were spaced and buildings were sized based on the size of the machines."

Alison has been buoyed to see how the buildings have been converted for today's use with the former Meadow Mill now filled with artist studios that make use of the high ceilings and large tripartite windows originally designed to let as much light as possible into these busy mills.

"In the attic space of one of the mills, it still had wooden beams, which was quite unusual because jute mills tended to have a lot of fires," Alison says.

"On the wooden beams, all the workmen and apprentices that had been up there to do work had carved their names and initials.

"Then I went down into the basement of another one and there were still big oil stains on the walls. The fact the oil stains were still on the wall and you could put your finger down it, it almost felt like you were touching the ghost of what had been there."

Alison's initial interest ended up turning into an 18-month research and writing project, exploring all of the remaining buildings with her dog Ziggy by her side.

She is now crowdfunding in the hope of turning her work called If These Wa's Could Talk into a published book, with plans to include a walking route to show people how the buildings have outlasted an industry which at one time seemed unstoppable.

"I think there's a generation who know they are jute mills but don't know any more than that," Alison says. "So I want to put in a couple of walking route around the two main areas in Dundee.

"My collie had walked all the mills with me but he passed away at the start of June to cancer.

"So I'm going to dedicate the book to Ziggy. He walked everywhere bless him, he was like my shadow."