"Winding Road near Liff", a painting by John Stoa [1]

Liff is a small hamlet northwest of Dundee in Scotland. Image File history File links LiffPainting. ... Image File history File links LiffPainting. ... A hamlet is (usually — see below) a small settlement, too small or unimportant to be considered a village. ... Dundees location in Scotland Dundee (Dùn Dèagh in Gaelic) is Scotlands fourth largest city, population 154,674 (2001), situated on the North bank of the Firth of Tay. ...

It was the site of Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, a large psychiatric institution which was situated in the grounds of an expansive estate. The hospital has recently closed and the area is now being developed as prime building land for up-market house building. The psychiatric unit has moved to a new building beside Ninewells Hospital.

The placename features in the title of a bestselling book by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, The Meaning of Liff. It is defined there as "a book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover". However, to people in the Tayside region of Scotland the name is virtually synonymous with "the local mental hospital". Douglas Noël Adams in an undated publicity photograph by Jill Furmanovsky Douglas Noël Adams (March 11, 1952 – May 11, 2001), also known (to fans) as Bop Ad or Bob (after his illegible signature), or by his initials DNA, was a British comic radio dramatist and author, most notably... John Lloyd (born 1951 in Dover, England) is a British comedy writer and producer. ... Front cover of the US hardcover edition of The Meaning of Liff, 1984. ... Tayside (Taobh Tatha in Gaelic) was a local government region of Scotland from 1974 to 1995. ...