Visiting superlative trees in the UK (1 Viewer)

[condor1992]

There are superlative trees in the UK. I was surprised to hear it, but there are some majestic, very old, very beautiful individual, named and dated organisms, the age and size of which is incredible. In autumn 2022, I tried to see some of the best ones. One of the trees I saw may be the second oldest non-cloning tree in the world.
Windsor Great Park
In September, I visited Windsor to see some rare fungi. As well as a certain oak tree. This oak tree, known as King Offa's oak, is the oldest oak in the UK, and by far the oldest in Windsor, at over 1,300 years old. The problem was, it grew on private crown estate land. When I got there, I met someone who agreed to show me the tree, which is out of bounds for many people. The tree looked healthy and majestic, and had a live, vigorous top, even though the trunk had split into 3 giant pieces.


Macclesfield
Somewhere in rural Cheshire, there lives the widest tree in the UK. With a girth of 14.02 meters, and an age of 1,200 years, the Marton oak doesn't look like one tree, but like three huge trees growing close together. This has been the widest tree in the UK since the collapse of the Newland oak long ago. This tree also grew on private land, and I was immensely privileged to see it. I cannot overstate the tree's enormity in my eyes.

Llangernyw
The Llangernyw yew is one of the oldest trees on the planet. Investigations into the tree's age by David Bellamy using high-precision techniques have established a minimum age of 4,000 years for the yew, and it could be as high as 5,000 years! It may be even older than Methuselah, and as such may be the second-oldest non cloning tree in the world, only truly surpassed by the Fortingall yew. Getting there was a nightmare, but I did not regret it.

 

[David N]

Thank you very much for highlighting these magnificent majestic monoliths. I never new such things existed. I am truly humbled and very grateful to you for taking the time to post this.

Thank You Condor1992 😃

David

 

[tehri]

a minimum age of 4,000 years for the yew, and it could be as high as 5,000 years

It's something that I read, that I hear, but that I can hardly conceive... it makes me feel just like in weightless, some strange feeling... 🙃
Thank's, real 'time travelling' thread !!

 

[Andy Adcock]

Surprised you didn't include what is arguably the most famous tree in the UK in my home county of Nottinghamshire.

The Major Oak - Sherwood Forest

Probably the most famous resident of Sherwood Forest (after Robin Hood of course), the iconic Major Oak is an ancient giant that absolutely cannot be missed. Only a 15-minute walk from the new visitor centre, follow the Major Oak Trail through the forest from the visitor centre. Keep your eyes...

www.visitsherwood.co.uk

 

[jurek]

You are very lucky to have so many very old trees in the UK. Especially that many look great, with spreading, well developed crowns because they grew in an open country.

By comparison, in much of continental Europe old trees are simply cut by forestry as just another timber. For me, it is a form of vandalism, destroying natural beauty and tourist attractiveness of the place. There are small patches of old growth forest, but trees there are usually smooth with few branches, because they grew among other trees.

 

[Xenospiza]

Yes, the old trees in the UK are quite something. It helps not to have had too many wars where trees were needed as fuel.

The oldest oak in the Netherlands actually looks quite bad. It is close to where I grew up and I would never have thought it is 600-800 years old.

Eik in Den Hout is 500 jaar ouder dan gedacht en misschien zelfs de oudste

De oudste eikenboom van Nederland staat hoogstwaarschijnlijk in Den Hout. Het gaat om de Heilige Eik, een gehavende boom die er niet zo bijzonder uitziet, en waarvan altijd werd gedacht dat-ie hooguit driehonderd jaar oud is. Uit onderzoek blijkt nu dat de eik 'een oeroude veteraan' is en tussen...

www.omroepbrabant.nl

A similarly old one in Germany near where I live now doesn't look great either!

Femeiche – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

 

[condor1992]

Surprised you didn't include what is arguably the most famous tree in the UK in my home county of Nottinghamshire.

The Major Oak - Sherwood Forest

Probably the most famous resident of Sherwood Forest (after Robin Hood of course), the iconic Major Oak is an ancient giant that absolutely cannot be missed. Only a 15-minute walk from the new visitor centre, follow the Major Oak Trail through the forest from the visitor centre. Keep your eyes...

www.visitsherwood.co.uk

I never visited it. That oak is very big, but it isn't the biggest in the UK, either, that title goes to the surprisingly little known Majesty oak in Kent

 

[rollingthunder]

Check out the ancient Yews in Shropshire - quite a few and while you are at it the Bewdley Sweet Chestnut!

Laurie -

 

[jurek]

I hope somebody makes an Europe-wide movement to plant yew trees in the forests.

Prehistorically, Taxus bacccata was much more common in European forests, but it looks like it was wiped out by people already before Middle Ages. Yew wood is unique in Europe being both strong and elastic, so useful for everything from bows to sledges, but the tree grows extremely slowly and regenerates poorly. It needs a special symbiotic fungus to grow from seed, apparently. Many remaining yews in Europe seem to be long-forgotten sacred trees or groves.