How is Britain’s most famous dinosaur connected to The Carnegie Club? Gemma Latham explores the unlikely link between the two A LEGENDARY TAIL After 112 years as one of the Natural History Museum’s most famous exhibits, ‘Dippy’ the dinosaur left his London residence at the start of 2017 to embark on a tour of the UK. Setting off from the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, his journey will take him through Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cardiff and Rochdale, before culminating in Norwich in October 2020. The magnificent life-size cast of a diplodocus skeleton was an instant hit with the public when it was first unveiled in 1905, but it still surprises many people to learn of the significant link between the famous dinosaur and Skibo. It turns out that Britain has the estate’s former owner Andrew Carnegie to thank for this national treasure. The fossilised bones of Dippy were discovered by railroad workers in Wyoming, USA in 1898. Carnegie decided to acquire the skeleton, described by newspapers as the ‘most colossal animal ever on Earth’, to display in his museum, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. It soon transpired that this great find was actually a new species of diplodocus, and was named Diplodocus Carnegii in his honour. Back in Scotland, as legend has it, King Edward VII saw a sketch of the diplodocus on a visit to Skibo and expressed a wish for © Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London. All rights reserved. something similar to display at the Natural History Museum in London. Keen to please his king, Carnegie commissioned a cast of Dippy and shipped 36 crates, containing 292 plaster-of-Paris bones, from the US to the UK via steam boat. The exhibit proved to be a huge draw for tourists for more than a century, its domineering presence capturing the imagination of all who visited the museum. But, after such a long time in one place, Dippy must surely be glad to have an opportunity to stretch his legs and go for a roam around the rest of the UK. ª nhm.ac.uk The cast of the Diplodocus Carnegii, known as Dippy, was unveiled to the public at London's Natural History Museum in 1905 – 6 1 – T H E C A R N E G I E C L U B At Glenmorangie, we are recognised as experts in wood management, travelling the world to seek the finest oak casks, to bring an intriguing complexity and smoothness to all our whiskies. We are the world we create. O U R K N O W L E D G E O F W O O D I S A S C O M P L E X A S O U R W H I S K I E S H I G H L A N D S I N G L E M A L T S C O T C H W H I S K Y S I N C E 1 8 4 3 Please enjoy responsibly. Over 18s only.