Britain’s 20 greatest trees

As 2024’s Tree of the Year is crowned, here are a few other fine specimens to visit this autumn

When the Skipinnish Oak, a magnificent 400-year-old tree that stands amid a spruce plantation in Lochaber, was announced as winner of 2024’s Tree of the Year contest, it focused attention once again on the vital role trees play in our lives, and the myriad ways in which they are enmeshed in our culture. 
Following soon after a report that revealed more than a third of tree species in the wild are facing extinction, it’s also a reminder that we tend to take them for granted until they’re threatened with destruction. One of the world’s rarest and most endangered trees is a native British species – the Arran whitebeam – found only on the Isle of Arran, Scotland. Only 407 were left at the last count. 
Celebrity trees naturally weave their way into our hearts, being entwined as they are in our landscapes, history, art and literature – witness the widespread sense of loss caused by the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree last year. But we need to celebrate their ecological value as well as their beauty.
The Skipinnish Oak, for instance, hosts diverse lichens such as the rare black-eyed Susan, while the venerable trees of Sherwood Forest provide a habitat for an abundance of creatures, including the uncommon hazel pot beetle that raises its larvae in pots lovingly fashioned from its own dung. 
Star status doesn’t necessarily protect a tree from destruction but it can at least enhance its chances of survival. The 250-year-old Cubbington Pear, a previous winner of Tree of the Year, was felled to make way for HS2, although its stump was relocated and now shows signs of regrowth. 
The same can’t be said for the countless unsung specimens that line our streets, grace our parks and gardens, and grow in hedges and scrublands. These trees don’t only improve air quality and provide vital habitats for birds and bugs, they also enrich our lives in deep, unfathomable ways and we need to cherish them. We’ll regret it once they’re gone.
This mighty oak, which is around 550 years old and has an impressive girth of 7m, was the runner-up at this year’s Tree of the Year contest, gaining 20 per cent of the public vote. It stands on the edge of a field on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, a short distance from The Mount, which was Charles Darwin’s childhood home. However, Shropshire council plans to fell it – along with eight other veteran trees – to make way for the Shrewsbury bypass. More than 100,000 people have signed a petition to save it, but whether they will succeed in doing so remains to be seen.
Charles Darwin certainly knew this yew tree, which  sits in a churchyard in the Kentish village of Downe; it was already of great antiquity in 1842 – when he moved to nearby Down House – and it’s said that he would often pause to sit beneath it while out for a walk. With a hollow centre, sculpted bark and a girth of over 9m (30ft), this arboreal giant is estimated to be well over 1,000 years old and a survivor from Saxon times. Darwin wished to be buried here but was deemed too important to lie in a humble parish churchyard and was interred in Westminster Abbey instead.
The wood in the centre of a yew tree decays and eventually hollows, making the species notoriously difficult to date. The National Trust, for instance, claims that this specimen, which sits on the opposite bank of the Thames to Runnymede,  is 2,500 years old.  However, Tim Hills of the Ancient Yew Group, says that its girth of 7.9m (26ft) suggests a more probable age of around 1,000 years. Whatever the truth, it still boasts an astonishing history and might even be the last living witness to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215.
In the orchard at Woolsthorpe Manor is a tree that played a remarkable role in the history of science – the very tree from which an apple fell and inspired Sir Isaac Newton to discover his theory of gravity. Newton had returned to his childhood home following an outbreak of plague in 1665 and the tree, a rare Flower of Kent variety, was already old enough to bear fruit. It was blown down in the 19th century but regrew from the base and is now around 370 years old.  
John Constable moved to Hampstead Heath in 1819 and created around 100 works of the area, most notably its cloud formations. He was also inspired by some of its trees and one, a veteran pine he immortalised in 1820, still stands. It’s in Sandy Heath, a scrubby area with patches of bog and ponds amid oak, birch and beech trees; its distinctive character is a result of heavy industrial workings carried out in the 19th century. The tree is held up by guy ropes and seems rather wistful, as if recalling past times.
Described in 1776 as “the largest tree in England” by dendrologist Peter Collinson, who measured its girth as 15.8m (more recent measurements suggest it is around 11m), this sweet chestnut tree growing close to St Leonard’s church, Tortworth, is a triumph of regeneration. Collinson claimed it grew from a nut planted during the reign of King Egbert in 800AD. While that may be fanciful, it certainly appears to be at least 600 years old. At first, it looks to be several different trees, however DNA evidence shows that it is a single specimen that has regenerated to striking effect. 
This remarkable tree is a nature reserve all of its own. It is thought to be one of the oldest hawthorns in Britain, possibly dating back to the 13th century. Situated near All Saints church, Hethel, it still flowers and produces bright red haws. It is often known as King John’s Thorn as chronicles claim that it was used as a meeting place for a rebellion during his reign. Other traditions say it was associated with local witches, that local boys collected its blossoms for their sweethearts in May, and that it was a boundary marker.
This black mulberry tree is one of the oldest in London. It was planted around 1608 – at the same time Charlton House was being built for Sir Adam Newton, tutor to James I’s son and heir, Prince Henry. Although black mulberries have been grown in England since Roman times, James I promoted their production  to establish a silk industry, as silkworms feed on mulberry leaves. However, their preference is for the leaves of white mulberries, not black, and the enterprise didn’t thrive as he had wished. This gnarled old tree still survives though and produces delicious fruit for staff at the house to collect and turn into jam.
This common lime has been growing in the grounds of Holker Hall for around 400 years and now boasts a 8.9m trunk, which spreads out like a fan. Lime trees became a favourite in formal gardens around the 1700s as they can easily be “pleached” – trained to create screens, tunnels and arbours, and this tree is probably a remnant of Holker’s first formal garden. Lime bark was once used to make rope, but it is the species’ value to wildlife that really makes it special; the sweet-scented flowers attract a variety of insects, while the leaves provide a feast for moth caterpillars.
Situated in Preston Park, Brighton, this 400-year-old English elm is probably the oldest of its kind in Europe. Brighton and Hove is noted for its elms, of which there are around 17,000, mostly planted in the 19th century. The trees coped well with the salty breezes and chalky soils, and continued to thrive until the late 1960s, when Dutch elm disease struck. In a bid to control the sickness, around 25 million elms were cut down nationwide, but Brighton took a different approach and combated the disease without widespread felling. This tree was once one of a pair, known as the Preston Twins, but its sibling was lost in 2019 to, paradoxically, Dutch elm disease.
The village of Tolpuddle in Dorset is celebrated for its association with the trade union movement. This 330-year-old sycamore is integral to this story because it was beneath its branches that a group of agricultural labourers met in the 1830s to discuss their poor rates of pay, going on to swear an “unlawful” oath to the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The leaders were put on trial for the “offence” in 1834 and transported to Australia, receiving  such a public outcry that they were later pardoned.  
One of the largest oaks in Britain, Sherwood Forest’s Major Oak, is somewhere between 800 to 1,100 years old, and its gnarled branches now have to be supported by stilts. It was first popularised by Maj Hayman Rooke in the 18th century and the Major’s Oak quickly became a tourist attraction. The advent of railway in the 19th century boosted its celebrity as visitors could take carriage rides through the Forest and picnic beside it; you could even pay a small fee to an attendant and climb inside.
Trees aren’t just celebrated for their beauty or antiquity, but also for their rarity – and one of the rarest is the Plymouth Pear. It was first identified in the 1800s, and is one of only a few tree species protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Though the species’ might once have been widespread, it’s now only found in a few hedgerows in Plymouth and Truro. Its fruits are small and hard, and its white flowers are said to smell like wet carpet, making them attractive to flies.
Evergreen and long-lived, it’s easy to understand why yews have long symbolised death and resurrection. They held a special significance for the Celts and early Christians, and branches used to be cut off and carried into church for funerals and on Palm Sunday. It is not surprising, then, that you’ll often find ancient yews in churchyards. Although claims that this tree dates back 4,000 years are unlikely, it is certainly one of Britain’s oldest yews and could well be 2,000 years old. 
This tree in Newtown is squeezed rather unromantically between a car park and the River Severn, but it has a special status. Fewer than 7,000 wild black poplars remain in the UK, making it one of our rarest and most endangered native tree species. The majority are male – black poplars are dioecious, meaning that trees bear either male or female catkins – so this female tree is even more notable. Estimated to be over 350 years old, it can also claim to have crossed a river after flood prevention works in the 1960s diverted the course of the Severn, meaning that the tree effectively shifted from the north to the south bank.
This enormous, multi-stemmed, beech tree grows in the grounds of Plas Newydd, the ancestral home of the Marquess of Anglesey. Its trunk has a girth of over 10m (32ft), making it the largest of any beech tree in Britain. According to the Ancient Tree Forum, it was possibly an old hedgerow tree that was cut at ground level around 200 years ago and then regrew in its present form. Whatever the case, it certainly produces a large number of nuts that help to feed the estate’s red squirrels.
This yew tree, which grows in the churchyard of St James’, Nantglyn, has history at its core – quite literally, for it was turned into a pulpit at some time in the 18th century. Steps of local Welsh slate were set into its heart, leading up to a pulpit from which sermons could be delivered al-fresco. Many think that one was delivered by John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, who was known for preaching in the open air. It’s certainly possible given the tree is at least 800 years old.
Situated on the outskirts of the border town of Jedburgh, this ancient oak is a survivor of the original Jedforest, which was a vast area of woodland recorded in the 14th century that was gradually felled for fuel and grazing. It’s possible that this oak survived because of its twisted shape, making it less attractive for use as timber. Variously estimated as between 500 to 1,000 years old, its unusual name might have derived from the capuche, or hood, worn by monks who sheltered beneath it on their way to Jedburgh Abbey.
Tucked away in the churchyard at Fortingall village, this is surely one of the world’s most famous trees. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when its age was estimated at 2,500 years old, it suffered from its fame after sections of the tree’s wood were hacked off to make trinkets for visitors. 
In the 1980s and 1990s, some claimed it to be over 5,000 years old, but more recent work suggests it is younger. The consensus places it at something over 2,000 years of age – still a mighty history and the tree keeps evolving too. Although long classified as a male yew, it is reportedly changing sex, with a branch turning from a flower-bearing male to a fruit-bearing female.
Drumlanrig Castle was built in the 17th century for the first Duke of Queensberry and its extensive grounds are home to this magnificent 300-year-old sycamore. It is thought to be the largest of its kind in Britain, with a canopy covering a fifth of an acre. It was selected to form part of the Queen’s Green Canopy, a network of 70 ancient trees and 70 ancient woodlands dedicated to the late Queen as part of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

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