Fortingall Yew, Perthshire

THE Fortingall Yew, found growing in the churchyard of the Perthshire village which shares its name, is among the oldest trees in Europe.

There is some debate about its age. Modern experts estimate the tree is between 2,000 and 3,000 years old, although others believe it could be a remnant of a post-Roman Christian site dating back 1,500 years. A figure of 5,000 to 9,000 years has also been suggested.

According to folklore, Pontius Pilate – the Roman governor who oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus – was born in its shade and played there as a child.

One story suggests that Pilate’s father was on a diplomatic mission to a Pictish king when news of his son’s birth reached Fortingall, another that his pregnant wife had been travelling with him and a third that the child was born after an illicit liaison with a local woman.

More recently the legend has been credited as a hoax devised by Sir Donald Currie, a shipping magnate who bought the Glenlyon Estate in 1885. A patron to writers such as Rudyard Kipling and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Sir Donald is said to have invented the tale as a prank with help from his literary friends.

The Dool Tree, Blairquhan Castle, Ayrshire

Dool or dule trees were used as natural gallows for public hangings – and often displayed the corpse for some weeks afterwards. They were common on many estates until the mid-18th century. The ancient sycamore that stands in the shadow of Blairquhan Castle is believed to be a dool tree planted in the 16th century during the reign of King James V of Scotland.

Hawthorn Tree at Cawdor Castle and Gardens near Nairn

It is said that around 1370, William, 3rd Thane of Cawdor, set out to build a replacement castle on a less marshy site than its predecessor. To find a location, he followed instructions said to have come to him in a dream and loaded panniers of gold on the back of a donkey.

William followed the animal as it roamed across his lands. When night fell, it rested under a tree on a higher and rockier site close to the steep-sided Allt Dearg.

The castle was built on that spot with the unique quirk that it was constructed around the tree. This subsequently became a feature of part of the cellar, known since as “The Hawthorn Room”.

Legend has it that the tree has magical qualities which have on more than one occasion saved the castle from disaster.

Modern scientific analysis has revealed that the tree died in approximately 1372, most likely as a result of being deprived of light because the castle had been built around it. The other surprise? It is a holly tree, not a hawthorn. It still stands in the cellar to this day.

Champion trees, various locations

Scotland boasts many champion trees: the largest, tallest and the exceptional. There is a Champion Tree Trail at Mount Stuart on Bute which features a Corsican pine, an evergreen conifer planted around 1864 which has grown to 153ft (46.5m).

Ardkinglas Woodland Garden at Cairndow, Argyll has an impressive collection of champion trees, including “the mightiest conifer in Europe”, a European silver fir with an almost 33ft (10m) girth.

Dawyck Botanic Garden near Peebles is home to some of Britain’s oldest and tallest trees including a European silver fir planted in 1680 during the reign of King Charles II. There are Douglas firs that date back to 1835, grown from the original seed sent home by the famous botanist David Douglas.

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has a striking paperbark maple which is easy to identify, even in winter thanks to its eye-catching form of self-exfoliation. As the old sheaves of the copper-red bark die, they peel themselves off revealing the young, smooth bark beneath.

The changeable colours of the tree’s leaves are equally dazzling. Starting out as orange in the spring, they become a pinkish-brown and then yellow, before finally turning deep green.

By late autumn, the leaves have taken on a deep red hue, complementing its peeling, coppery bark. The paperbark maple was first collected in China at the turn of the 20th century by botanist Ernest Henry Wilson.

Bicycle Tree near Brig o’ Turk, Trossachs

Dating from the late 19th century, the so-called “Bicycle Tree” is a sycamore reputed to have self-seeded beside the scrap heap of the village blacksmith in Brig o’ Turk. As it grew, it absorbed – or swallowed up – several metal objects, including a bicycle and, reputedly, a ship’s anchor and chain.

There is a fable about a young man conscripted to the First World War who left his bicycle hanging over a branch. Some say he never came back – or if he did return found that the tree had claimed the two-wheeled steed as its own. Today all that remains are the handlebars sticking out of the trunk.

William Wallace Yew, Elderslie, Renfrewshire

Two symbolic trees once stood side-by-side: the Wallace Oak and the Wallace Yew. Now only the latter remains. Some doubt has been cast on the age, yet parish records from the 1700s refer to it as “this ancient tree”. It stands near to where William Wallace is reputed to have been born in 1270.

Robert’s Bruce’s Yew, Loch Lomond

William Wallace isn’t the only Scottish hero to have his own yew. Perched on a rocky outcrop on Loch Lomond, this ancient tree is where Robert the Bruce is said to have sheltered from his enemies in 1306 while recounting tales of valour to keep his troops’ spirits up.

Wollemi pines, Inverewe Garden and Estate, Poolewe, Ross-shire

Inverewe boasts the world’s most northerly grove of a Jurassic tree. Wollemi pine was thought to have died out two million years ago, but the species was discovered in Australia in the early 1990s. Eight were planted at Inverewe in 2009.

Netty’s Tree, Eriskay, Outer Hebrides

Newly crowned as Scotland’s Tree of the Year 2018 in a Woodland Trust poll, this spruce known as “Netty’s Tree” was, until recently, the only tree on Eriskay. It was planted more than 100 years ago by the poet, priest and land rights activist Father Allan McDonald.

Netty MacDonald lived on the nearby croft and encouraged the island’s children to play on the tree as their cries and laughter reminded her of her own family who had grown up and moved away to work. Netty died aged 88 in 2010. Her daughter now lives on the croft and continues the tradition.

Rizzio’s Chestnut, Melville Castle Hotel, near Dalkeith

According to folklore, this Spanish chestnut tree was planted for Mary Queen of Scots by her Italian private secretary David Rizzio as a token of his love for her. The Queen responded by planting five oak trees along the drives which also survive to this day.

A less public declaration may have been prudent. After rumours spread that the pair were lovers, a group of outraged Scottish nobles stabbed Rizzio 56 times. His brutal murder took place in front of the seven-months-pregnant queen at Holyrood Palace in 1566.

The Caledonian Forest

Much of the Highlands and what is now the Cairngorms National Park was once covered with the Caledonian Forest estimated in its heyday, around 5,000 BC, to have spanned 1.5 million hectares, about a fifth of Scotland’s land mass.

By 2,000 BC, however, as the climate became wetter and windier, the forest was reduced significantly. It continued to shrink in size from then onwards largely due to human intervention.

Today the Caledonian Forest exists in 35 remnants. The Scots pine trees found here are directly descended from the native pinewoods that grew around 7,000 BC and once formed the westernmost outpost of the Boreal Forest in Europe.

Beneath the vast forest canopy, the likes of wild boar, lynx, brown bears and grey wolves – now extinct in the wild in Scotland – roamed.

The Caledonian Forest is still home to some of the rarest wildlife in the British Isles, including mountain hare, pine marten, red squirrel, Scottish wildcats, capercaillie, crested tit and Scottish crossbill.

It was revealed last month that a £23m Endangered Landscapes Programme has selected the Caledonian Forest to be the focus of a key restoration project – along with seven other major regeneration schemes – to restore Europe’s most threatened environments.

Malloch’s Oak, Strathallan Castle, Perthshire

There is a dark history tied to the Malloch’s Oak in the grounds of Strathallan Castle. It is said that during a famine the local miller, Malloch, hoarded flour and grain instead of distributing it to the starving locals. He was strung up from this tree as punishment.

Copper beech tree, Drummond Castle Gardens, Perthshire

The formal terraced gardens include a copper beech tree planted by Queen Victoria to commemorate her visit in 1842.

The Camperdown Elm, Camperdown Park, Dundee

A contorted weeping elm discovered in woods near Dundee in 1835, it is thought to have been re-planted near what was then the Earl of Camperdown’s new mansion house and is now within the city’s Camperdown Park.

Flodden Tree, The Hirsel Estate near Coldstream, Berwickshire

This sycamore on the Hirsel Estate in the Borders is believed to have been planted in tribute to the Scottish dead at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

Napoleon’s Tree, Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire

During his final days on the Atlantic island of St Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte befriended British Army surgeon Archibald Arnott. Two days before he died, Napoleon gave instructions that no British doctor except Arnott should touch him.

A weeping willow tree was Napoleon’s favourite spot for contemplation on the island and he asked to be buried under its shade. This wish was fulfilled when he died in 1821 and Napoleon was interred there until being repatriated to France almost 20 years later.

Arnott took a cutting from the tree, planting it on his return home to Ecclefechan, where it still grows in the grounds of the Kirkconnel Hall Hotel.

The “Filo Pastry” Tree, Logan Botanic Gardens near Stranraer

This impressive specimen of Polylepis australis – the largest of its kind in the UK – got its nickname from a Stranraer Academy pupil who compared the flaky bark to the filo pastry on a spring roll. Originating from South America, its peeling bark traps air to keep the tree warm at night.

Redwood Avenue, Benmore Botanic Garden, Argyll

Visitors enter the gardens through the majestic Redwood Avenue which was planted in 1863, a time when the American Civil War was at its height and Queen Victoria was on the throne. These towering Sequoiadendron giganteum are now around 50 metres high.

Birnam Oak and Birnam Sycamore, Perthshire

The Birnam Oak and its neighbour the Birnam Sycamore are thought to be the sole surviving trees of the great forest that once straddled the banks of the River Tay. This is immortalised in Shakespeare’s Macbeth as the Birnam Wood.

The “Big Tree”, Kirkwall, Orkney

To be fair, the “Big Tree” is not actually that lofty. Rather, this 200-year-old sycamore is much beloved among Orcadians due to its prominent position on Kirkwall’s main street making it a popular meeting spot. It was voted Scotland’s Tree of the Year 2017.

The giants of Reelig Glen, Inverness

Reelig Glen boasts some of Britain’s tallest trees: a Douglas fir that, when measured in 2014, came in at 217.10ft (66.4m); a larch measuring 157.5ft (48m); a 154.2ft-high (47m) Norway spruce and a lime tree which stands at 150.11ft (46m). The Dughall Mor – the big dark stranger – a Douglas fir planted in 1882 also grows there.

Queen Mary’s Thorn, St Andrews University

A hawthorn said to have been planted by Mary, Queen of Scots in the 1560s grows in the grounds of St Mary’s College at St Andrews University. Interestingly, Moray House Garden at Edinburgh University once had its own Queen Mary’s Thorn, believed to have been lost in the mid-19th century as the teacher training college expanded.

Stevenson’s Yew, Edinburgh

The yew was a favourite play spot for Robert Louis Stevenson - author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - as a child visiting his grandfather in the Colinton area of Edinburgh. It is said the marks of a swing are still visible on its branches.

Robert Kirk’s Fairy Tree, Aberfoyle

Reverend Robert Kirk wrote the book The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns And Fairies in 1691 (although it didn’t appear in print until the early 19th century) filled with stories about those who claimed to have had contact with these mythical beings, including Kirk himself.

He believed that the Doon Hill in Aberfoyle was a gateway to the world of the fairies. Kirk died in 1692 after collapsing while visiting the hill at night. It is likely he suffered a heart attack, yet rumours swirled among local people that he been carried away by the fairies for revealing their secrets.

Doon Hill is also known as “Fairy Knowe” or “Dun Sithean” and according to legend Kirk’s soul is still trapped inside a lone Scots pine. Today, people hang ribbons and messages around the trees in this area to ward off illness and bad luck or commemorate a loved one.

Beech Avenue, Achnacarry, Inverness-shire

The story goes that Donald “The Gentle Lochiel” Cameron heard about the arrival in Scotland of Charles Edward Stuart – Bonnie Prince Charlie – while planting this avenue of beech trees on his estate at Achnacarry, just prior to the Jacobite rising of 1745.

The inaugural Scottish Tree Festival organised by Discover Scottish Gardens features more than 70 tree-themed events and runs until December 2. Visit discoverscottishgardens.org