Carnoustie

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Carnoustie
Scots: Carnoustie
Carnoustie shown within Scotland
Population	13,000
OS grid reference	NO56653422
Council area	Angus
Lieutenancy area	Angus
Constituent country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	CARNOUSTIE
Postcode district	DD7
Dialling code	01241
Police	Tayside
Fire	Tayside
Ambulance	Scottish
European Parliament	Scotland
UK Parliament	Dundee East
Scottish Parliament	Angus North East Scotland
List of places: UK • Scotland

Coordinates: 56°29′53″N 2°42′21″W / 56.49805, -2.70574

Carnoustie is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is a small town at the mouth of the Barry Burn on the east coast of Scotland. It is best known for its associations with golf, which is recorded as having been played there in 1527^[1]. This is a quarter century earlier than the first record of golf at St Andrews, dating from 1552.

The town is served by Carnoustie railway station.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early History 1.2 Thomas Lowson and the origin of the town 1.3 Industry in Carnoustie 1.4 Tourism and Recreation in Carnoustie 2 Education 2.1 History of Education in Carnoustie 2.2 Schools in Carnoustie Today 3 Religion 4 Politics 4.1 UK and Scottish parliaments 4.2 Local government 5 Sport 5.1 Golf 5.2 Football 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early History

Carnoustie was the site of the legendary Battle of Barry in which the Scots, supposedly led by Malcolm II, defeated a Danish invasion force in 1010 AD. The history of this event relies heavily on tradition, much of which is fanciful, and it is unclear whether any serious archaeological study has ever been carried out. The scale and importance of the battle, and indeed it's historical authenticity is unknown.

The Scots army is supposed to have gathered at Barry Sands and, from there, ambushed the Danish Army who intended to take Dundee. The exact location of the battle is unknown, but the Lochty burn is said to have run red with blood for three days following it^[2]. No record of the event is found before that written by Hector Boece in the sixteenth century. It is reasonable to suspect that Boece transcribed the story from oral tradition, being originally a local from Panbride. In favour of its historicity, a number of tumuli are reported to have been found during the early building of Carnoustie^[3] and a number of fragments of armaments were uncovered at Pitskelly in 1812^[4].

Suffering heavy losses, the leader of the Danes, Camus, is said to have fled the battlefield, but was pursued by Robert de Keith, who caught up with him at Brae Downie where, it is said, the Camus Cross was erected in memory of him^[4]. It is important to note, however, that there is no other record of Camus and many believe the cross is more likely to mark the grave of a local chieften.

The etymology of the name 'Carnoustie' is ultimately unknown, but is sometimes said to derive from 'Cairn of Hosts' in memory of the battle. Other possibilities include the gaelic 'Car na fheusta' (The rock of the feast or pinewood) or that it is a combination of the prefix 'Car', meaning 'rock' common in the area and the Old Norse term 'noust', meaning 'boat beaching place', also common in parts of Scotland. A local legend has it that, following the Danes defeat at the Battle of Barry, the Norse gods cursed the area with a plague of crows, and the town became known as 'Craws Nestie'.

The name predates the town itself by several hundred years. 'Carnusie' farm is recorded in the Balmerino Abbey register of c1573^[5], which states that it (along with part of Grange of Barry and Badiehill) was feued to a man by the name of Fairney for the annual sum of £24.2s and several chickens^[3], and 'Karnousty' farm can be seen on Pont's map of Lower Angus, c1583-96^[6].

[edit] Thomas Lowson and the origin of the town

In the late 1700s a road between the villages of Barry and West Haven was marked out by David Gardyne of Ravensby with a horse drawn plough. Its path followed the Barry Burn for a while, then took a straight course towards West Haven. On encountering a rocky outcrop, Gardyne had to divert his horses slightly to the North. This diversion remains today as the corner between Barry Road and Dundee Street. From there, he continued straight to West Haven, passing the Point Inn which stood immediately behind where the Municipal Buildings were built in 1896, opposite the Kinloch Arms Hotel.

It was along this road that Thomas Lowson, a loom wright who lived in Barry, was returning home one day in 1797 from a trip to Inverpeffer^[7]. After passing the Point Inn, some say stopping there a while, he took a rest and slept for a while, and upon waking feeling especially refreshed, decided to approach the owner of the land, Major William Phillips, and ask to rent a small area of land. Phillips, the former valet of Panmure estate, bought Carnoustie estate from Bailie Milne in 1792 for the price of £5,000 on his return from India, renaming it 'Taymouth'. Phillips was surprised by the request, as it the land was thought to be agronomically poor, but granted Lowson the first feu of two acres of land for seventy shillings. On hearing about it, Phillips' wife took pity on the apparently deluded Lowson and refunded him five shillings^[3]. A popular legend has it that Lowson, while planting crops on his new land, lost the willow dibble stick he had been using, later finding it to have sprouted. The 'Dibble Tree', a magnificent specimens of Crack Willow (Salix fragilis) can still be seen, off Ferrier Street, and is listed as one of the hundred Treefest Heritage Trees of Scotland^[8].

Lowson proved his detractors wrong and enjoyed so much success on his land in his first year that a number of his friends applied for feus in the following years. The estate was purchased from Phillips in 1808 by George Kinloch for the price of £11,000. Kinloch restored the name of Carnoustie and promoted the growth of the village, setting up brickworks and granting loans to prospective feuers to allow them to settle. For many years, the village was known simply as 'The Feus' and an 1832 map of the area shows The Feus as being a number of properties, largely concentrated in the area to the west of the Lochty burn^[9]. A number of streets in that area bear the names of early residents of Carnoustie, for example Bonella Street was named after the surgeon James Bonella, one of the town's early residents.

Lowson died in 1856 at the age of 92. He can be seen on both the 1841 census, where his occupation is listed as 'carpenter', and the 1851 census, where he is listed simply as the 'First Ferth in Carnoustie'. His original thatched cottage was improved extensively in the 19th century by his son William and can still be seen on the south side of Dundee Street, not far to the west of The Cross, where it still bears the name 'First Feu Cottage'.

[edit] Industry in Carnoustie

Early in its history, Carnoustie was dominated by the linen industry. flax was grown in considerable quantities in the area and supplemented by several tonnes imported annually from Riga and St Petersburg. The predominant occupation listed in the 1841 census is that of 'Linen Hand Loom Weaver' and it is stated in the 1833 statistical account for Barry Parish that the great bulk of the population engaged in it^[10].

Aside the Linen industry, the economy rested mainly on agriculture and fishing. Major crops were of wheat, barley, oats, peas, turnips, clover and potatoes, much of which was sold on to markets in local towns as well as flax for the linen industry. Cattle were raised for export to England. Salmon were caught in the salmon nets on Carnoustie beach, and the small fishing fleets of Westhaven and Easthaven caught cod for export and haddock which was largely destined for Dundee and Forfar. Lobsters were caught for live export to London and crabs were caught for local use.

The laying of the Dundee to Arbroath railway in 1838 encouraged major industrial growth in the town. Almost immediately, the Vitriol Works opened up on ground now occupied by the derelict maltings, producing sulphuric acid, used largely in the production of agricultural fertilisers. The Panbride Bleachfield opened adjacent to the railway, near the mouth of the Craigmill burn, on land that was until recently occupied by Carnoustie Tyres. It was supplied with water from the burn via the ponds that can now be seen in the grounds of Panbride House.

In 1851, shoe maker John Winter opened a shop near The Cross. His business grew such that he built a large factory in 1874 at the foot of East Path (now Park Avenue/Queen Street), employing 200 hands and producing 2000 pairs of shoes and boots a week. His son, George, took over the business and built the impressive mansion, Winterdyne, that overlooks Carnoustie House Grounds at the top of Queen Street. Production ceased in 1952^[11].

The linen industry in Carnoustie was industrialised in 1857, with the opening of The Panmure Works by James Smieton. The works, which at its height employed 600 employees, was a state of the art factory containing 400 modern power looms, and produced six million yards of linen and jute annually. Smieton also built a number of streets in the surrounding area to provide housing for his employees and, in 1865, he opened the Panmure Works Institute, on Kinloch Street, which provided a library, billiard room and a hall for the education and recreation of his workers. The firm went through several changes of ownership through its history and was owned by WG Grant & Co Ltd from 1932 until 1972 when it went into liquidation^[12]. The building was restored in the late 1990s and now houses the building firm DJ Laing.

The smaller Taymouth Linen works were opened in 1867 to the west of Panmure Works and the Vitriol Works, and at its height contained 100 power looms. Again, additional housing was built by the owners, the Brodies, including Taymouth Terrace.

[edit] Tourism and Recreation in Carnoustie

In addition to bringing industry to Carnoustie, the opening of the railway also made the town appealing to the middle classes, who used it as a commuting town for Dundee. A further benefit brought by the railway was the tourism industry, which took advantage of Carnoustie's seaside location and of the Golf links. Carnoustie was a popular tourist destination up to the mid-twentieth century and was popularly called the 'Brighton of the North'.

In 1890, the Earl of Dalhousie, who owned the land, sold the links to the people of the town, to remain available for their recreation in perpetuity. While the townspeople are the owners, today the links are administered on their behalf by Angus Council.

The Open Championship has been staged at Carnoustie Golf Links seven times since the beginning of the twentieth century (1931, 1937, 1953, 1968, 1975, 1999 and 2007).

[edit] Education

[edit] History of Education in Carnoustie

Prior to the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, the provision of schools in Scotland was the responsibility of the parish. The Education Act of 1696 allowed churches to set up schools, funded mainly by the landowner.

At the start of the 1870s, each church in Carnoustie had its own school. Some of these can still be seen today, in the former primary schools of Barry and Panbride, which were at that point the schools of Panbride Parish Church and Barry Free Church, and the Phillip Hall on Dundee Street and Boys' Brigade Hall in Maule Street, which were the schools connected with Newton of Panbride Free Church and The Erskine Free Church.

These were supplemented with a number of private subscription schools, including a school in Links Avenue, opened in 1831, that now houses the local Scout troop and a school off Maule Street that is now used as Holyrood Church's Hall. These were both victims of the success of Carnoustie Free Church school and were abandoned. More successful were the school linked to Panmure Works and a private Girls School in Kinloch Street, but these too were made redundant by the 1872 act.

Carnoustie Public School was built in 1878 near the Free Church school on Dundee Street. It was extended several times before the secondary school pupils were decanted to the new Carnoustie High School building in Shanwell Road. The old school was renamed Kinloch Primary School, and continued until 2006, when it and Barry and Panbride Primary Schools were closed as part of the reorganisation of schools in the area.

[edit] Schools in Carnoustie Today

Carlogie Primary School was opened in the mid-1970s in the new Caesar Avenue/Linefield Road housing estate and its current catchment area is all of Carnoustie East of Queen Street and the pupils from the surrounding rural area that was formerly served by Panbride Primary School, including Panbride, East Haven, Hatton, Muirdrum, Auchrennie, Pitlivie and Salmond's Muir. The school's pupils are currently housed at the former Kinloch Primary School while Carlogie's buildings are undergoing extensive refurbishment.

Woodlands Primary School is a recently completed building in the former caravan park in Carnoustie House Grounds. Its catchment area is the central part of Carnoustie between Burnside Street and Queen Street, plus the rural area north of the town, incorporating Clayholes, Balmachie, Pitskelly, Upper Victoria and Heugh-Head.

Burnside Primary School is another recently completed building in Thomas Street on land that formerly was used as football pitches. Its catchment area includes the remaining part of Carnoustie and the former rural catchment of Barry Primary, including Barry, Cotside, Balhungie, Ardestie, Woodhill , Grange of Barry and Mains of Ravensby.

Carnoustie High School is situated on Shanwell Road and takes all secondary pupils from Carnoustie and the surrounding rural area, including former pupils of Carlogie, Woodlands, Burnside, Kinloch, Panbride, Barry, Newbigging and Monikie Primary Schools. It is currently undergoing extensive rebuilding. Alumni include actor Alan Cumming and Roddy Woomble, singer from the band Idlewild.

[edit] Religion

The original Parish Church in Barry was built in 1800 on the site of its predecessor which was described as being an old and sorry building. It was insufficient to house its congregation and refusal of the heritors to fund its enlargement led to much of the congregation joining the new Carnoustie church in 1837. All that remains of Barry Parish Church now is the lower portion of its walls and kirkyard. The Disruption of 1843 led to a small Free Church being set up at the East end of Barry. This was replaced by a larger building in 1888, and this building now houses Barry Church.

The first two churches in Carnoustie were built in 1810 by two rival branches of the Secession Church, which had split from the Established Church in 1733 over the issue of patronage. The Anti-Burghers demolished the church they had built in 1789 near Grange of Barry Farm and rebuilt it, the 'Red Kirk', at Rye Park which was where Thistle Street now stands. The Burghers, built their church the same year in Kinloch Street. This church later went through a series of Unions with other churches, becoming part of the United Original Secession Church in 1822 and the Free Church in 1852.

In 1837, the Established Church of Scotland built a church on the south side of Dundee street at the site on which now stands the Army and Air Cadets building. This congregation also split from the Established Church during the Disruption of 1843 and became part of the Free Church. When the Established Church claimed this building in 1850, the Free Church built another church, which later became known as St Stephen's church, immediately adjacent, on the site that was later used by Carnoustie Health Centre. Their Church Hall, The Philip Hall, is still in existence and is now used by Carnoustie Church.

The current buildings of Panbride Church were built in 1851, on the site of the previous building. The site has been in use as a church since 1147 with a series of successive buildings being built there, the previous one being built in 1681. In 1854, the part of the congregation of Panbride Church that had joined the Free Church built what became Newton Church at Gallowlaw after several years of being housed in a wooden building on Westhaven Farm. The building was damaged by fire in 1887 and rebuilt to a larger design.

The Scottish Episcopal Church traces its history in Carnoustie to 1853 when it began meeting in an old Schoolhouse off Maule Street. It was formed into a congregation in 1877, which rapidly outgrew its premises, leading to the building of The Church of The Holyrood in 1881, the former building becoming the church hall.

In 1873, the congregation of the Red Kirk, which had now become part of The United Presbyterian Church, again demolished their church and, in part, used the material to build The Erskine Church on the North side of Dundee Street. This, along with St Stevens Free Church and the Free Church in Kinloch Street, became part of the United Free Church when the United Presbyterians and Free Church merged in 1900. On unification of the United Free Church with the Established Church in 1929, St Stephens and The Erskine Church's congregations merged, using St Stephen's as a home. The Erskine Church was sold, and has variously been a cinema, snooker club and pub since. Those that did not agree with reunification with the Established Church formed a congregation as part of The United Free Church (Continuing), first finding a home in the YMCA building, later buying the Original Secession Church in Kinloch Street, where The Erskine United Free Church worship to this day.

Carnoustie Church built its new, larger church in 1902, opposite its former site. This building continues today to house the congregation of Carnoustie Church. The congregations of Carnoustie Church and St Stephen's merged in 1969, with St Stephen's being demolished to make way for the new Health Centre. In 1956, the congregations of Panbride Church and Newton Church united and continue to meet at both churches, Newton Church during Winter months and Panbride in the Summer.

The Roman Catholic Church meets in the modern (built 2000) building of St Anne's Church in Thomas Street. This replaced the much smaller building the congregation had previously used in Dundee Street.

The Carnoustie Christian Fellowship is an independent congregation meeting in a converted former Co-op building opposite the War Memorial.

The Churches all have their leaders appointed to the local Carnoustie Ministers' Council, which promotes joint Church events and has responsibility for the leadership of the town Boys' and Girls' Brigades. The Scouts and Girl Guides are also strongly supported by local congregations.

[edit] Politics

[edit] UK and Scottish parliaments

• Carnoustie is part of the Dundee East constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which returns a Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons, at Westminster.

• Carnoustie is part of the Angus constituency of the Scottish Parliament which has Significantly different boundaries to the Westminster constituency. The constituency returns a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) to Holyrood and is part of the North East Scotland electoral region.

[edit] Local government

Carnoustie is represented at Angus Council by the Carnoustie & District ward, from which three councillors are elected. The members elected from this ward are; Helen Oswald (Scottish National Party), Peter Murphy (Labour Party) and Ralph Palmer (Scottish National Party).

[edit] Sport

[edit] Golf

Carnoustie is famous for the 3 golf courses which are the Burnside Golf Course, Buddon Golf Course and the most famous, Championship Course. Carnoustie has hosted the British Open Golf Championship in 1999 when Scottish Paul Lawrie was the winner in a play-off against Jean Van de Velde. Carnoustie also hosted it most recently in 2007 when Pádraig Harrington was in a play-off against Sergio García.

Each year the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is contested over 3 courses (Old Course - St Andrews, Kingsbarns - St Andrews & Championship Course, Carnoustie) http://www.alfreddunhilllinks.com

Carnoustie Golf Links is one of the venues in the Open Championship rotation. Golf is recorded as having been played here in 1527, earlier than at St Andrews, where the first record of golf dates from 1552.

Carnoustie first played host to The Open Championship in 1931, after modifications to the course by James Braid in 1926. The winner then was Tommy Armour, from Edinburgh.

Later Open winners at Carnoustie include Henry Cotton of England in 1937, Ben Hogan of the USA in 1953, Gary Player of South Africa in 1968, Tom Watson of the USA in 1975, Paul Lawrie of Scotland in 1999 and Pádraig Harrington of Ireland in 2007. The last two championships were won in playoffs.

In North America, the course is infamously nicknamed "Car-nasty," due to its famous difficulty. Carnoustie is considered by many to be the most difficult course in the Open rota, and one of the toughest courses in the world.

The 1999 Open Championship is best remembered for the epic collapse of French golfer Jean Van de Velde, who needed only a double-bogey six on the 72nd hole to win the Open—and proceeded to shoot a triple-bogey seven, tying Paul Lawrie and 1997 champion Justin Leonard at 290, at six over par. Lawrie won the playoff and the championship (and Van de Velde won a place in sports infamy).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnoustie_Golf_Links

[edit] Football

Carnoustie is home to the junior football club Carnoustie Panmure.

Carnoustie Panmure F.C. are a Scottish junior football club from the town of Carnoustie, Angus. Formed in 1936, they are nicknamed the Gowfers due to the town's well-established links to the sport of golf ("gowf" in Scots). They play at Laing Park, to which they moved in 2004, having previously played at Westfield Park.

The club received significant investment in the late 1990s, which has allowed them to emerge as one of the stronger Tayside clubs participating in the East Region. The pinnacle of their achievements was winning the Scottish Junior Cup in 2004.

The club currently plays in the Scottish Junior Football Association's East Region Super League.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Carnoustie Golf Links website
• Carnoustie Open 2007, website to promote Carnoustie's most famous export: golf
• Carnoustie shops and amenities, EveryInch.co.uk