The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Descendant of Carnoustie’s founding father gives backing to heritage group
COMMUNITY: First meeting for friends of the ‘dibble tree’
The great-great-grandson of a Tayside town’s founding father has given his backing to a new heritage group.
David Lowson, who has lived in Carnoustie all his life and is still active aged 99, gave a talk to the first meeting of the Friends of Carnoustie and District Heritage.
The town’s “dibble tree” in Ferrier Street took root in 1797 when itinerant shipwright and salmon fisher Tommas Lowson left his dibble, or planting stick, embedded in the ground.
As the tree began to grow, Mr Lowson put his wandering days behind him and decided to settle down, where previously there was only a barren wilderness.
He built himself a house, and as others came to join him, the tree became a symbol of their newly-founded town.
Even the town’s name derives from the Scottish phrase craw’s noustie, or crow’s nest, after the birds which nest in the tree once a year.
Mr Lowson said: “I’m very pleased the new heritage group has been formed because it’s so important to preserve our history.
“I’m very proud of my great-greatgrandfather who lived to the age of 92 which in those days was incredible.
“I’m 99 and will celebrate my 100th birthday early next year so I have inherited his genes.”
Mr Lowson said his great-great grandfather used his job as a salmon fisher to gain exemption from the press gang during the Napoleonic wars and spent years as sea fencible or militiaman, keeping a look-out over the bay.
Chairman Robbie Murray welcomed more than 70 people to the first meeting of the Friends of Carnoustie and District Heritage in the Braid Hall.
The principal speaker was Norman Atkinson who talked about the early history of Carnoustie and the evening concluded with musician Eddie Cairney who entertained the audience with his own work, The Dibble Tree Song.