THE COMMUNITY ownership of land at Newburgh waterfront was celebrated with the burning of a boat on Saturday.

The fiery ceremony marked the recent purchase of the land under the Land Reform Act community right-to-buy provision. The boat was set alight by Roger Taylor, who won a draw for the honour.

Spectators watched the fishing boat, which long lay abandoned at Robertson’s pier, blaze near the former net-drying green, supervised by local firefighters.

However, wet weather forced the cancellation of another part of the celebration, the lighting of lamps etching out the 200-yard-high bear on Parkhill.

The bear is the symbol of the Warwick family and a member of that family helped found the famous Lindores Abbey.

The boat-burning coincided with Newburgh’s annual salmon boat races, which were formerly part of the Highland games.

Racing of cobles, once a common sight on the Tay, has been held at Newburgh since 1880 and the tradition continues despite the end of netting there in 1996.

Winners of the main race were locals, Barry Roper and Tom Johnston, who led home four other boats.