There is also Niel Gow’s Oak, under which Scottish fiddle player Niel Gow is said to have composed many of his best strathspeys and reels. And the Birnam Sycamore, which with a girth in excess of eight metres is a tad beyond even the most ardent tree hugger.
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HOT SPOT - Dunkeld
The cathedral town of Dunkeld is on the banks of the River Tay in a part of Perthshire known as Big Tree Country, an apt term for an area that is home to Europe's oldest tree, the Fortingall Yew, guesstimated to be between 3000 and 5000 years old; the world's highest hedge, a 120ft beech 'wall' on the A93 believed to have been planted in 1745; and the ancient-looking Birnam Oak, the last surviving remnant of Birnam Wood, the forest in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
