Hope for Sycamore Gap tree made famous in Robin Hood as it could be saved
The world famous Sycamore Gap tree may regrow after being felled in a shocking act of vandalism, but it will take years to reach any height and is unlikely to be as “statuesque” as before.
The sycamore, which was in the 1991 Kevin Costner hit Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, was one of the world’s most photographed trees. People had got engaged under it, loved-ones’ ashes were scattered at its base, but the 108ft tree next to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland was felled overnight on Wednesday.
It caused outrage, with Hairy Biker Si King driven to post: “I hope whoever has done that has a conscious (sic); because you’ve just murdered a sentinel of time and elemental spirit of Northumberland.” A 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, but later released on police bail.
There are hopes shoots could still grow from the landmark. National Trust general manager Andrew Poad said: “It’s a very healthy tree – we can see that now, because of the condition of the stump. It may well regrow a coppice from the stump, and if we could nurture that then that might be one of the best outcomes, and then we keep the tree.”
Felled tree at Hadrian’s Wall (PA)Coppicing involves felling a tree to create a stump, known as the stool, from where new shoots will grow. But gardener and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh said: “It may well regrow, but it will most likely become multi-stemmed and not nearly so statuesque. It would really be better if a new one was planted, and carefully watched over.”
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John Parker, from The Arboricultural Association, told Sky News: “There is a chance you might get shoots at the bottom, but the tree will never be able to re-establish itself to the way it was before.” The National Trust said the site was closed and asked people to stay away while they tried to make the area safe.
Its statement said: “We’ll be working with Northumberland National Park, other partners and the local community to consider plans for the site and the tree in the future.” It is thought more than one person was involved in felling the tree. Mike Pratt, of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, said: “It’s not a small tree, so it would have taken a lot of skill and equipment. It’s cleanly, professionally done. So someone was intent.”
The National Trust said the tree was planted between 1860 and 1890. It was voted English Tree of the Year in 2016. Poet Robert Macfarlane said the sight of the felled tree made him and many others feel sick. He called for a forest to be planted in its place. He said: “Let us see a Sycamore Gap forest rise for the loss of a tree.”
Rangers carry away branches to take cuttings (PA)John Pattinson, tenant of Hotbank Farm on National Trust land, said: “I thought it had been blown over by wind. I never imagined anyone had deliberately gone over to saw it down. It’s sad to see a thing that has grown for so many years disappear from the landscape.”
A police statement said: “A 16-year-old male was arrested in connection with the incident. He has since been released on police bail.” Officers described the tree as “iconic” and said it was destroyed in “a deliberate act of vandalism”. Superintendent Kevin Waring, of Northumbria Police, said the destruction of the “world-renowned landmark” had “caused significant shock, sadness and anger”.
Activism must mind the gap
By Siobhan McNally
I could have wept at the sight of the hacked-off Sycamore Gap tree as it lay severed on the ground, a pitiful symbol of broken Britain. At a time when our planet needs our living, breathing trees more than ever, the murder of this ancient sycamore is a stark reminder of all the broken climate promises, the relentless march of the machines and the destruction of our natural habitats.
There has been an outpouring of sadness at the butchering of a living landmark that meant so much to the whole nation. I feel that loss personally after visiting the tree in August 2021 when my then 12-year-old daughter, Jesse, and I walked Hadrian’s Wall with four other adults and their six boys.
Siobhan and daughter Jesse enjoying the Sycamore Gap (Siobhan McNally)
The statuesque Sycamore Gap tree (Siobhan McNally)We raised £3,000 for Young Minds, which was ironic because I was the one needing therapy after trying to march a horde of bedraggled teenagers across 73 craggy miles in five days. But at the heart of our trek was that beautiful sycamore tree, a spiritually important midway point where we could take stock of how far we had come, and how much more we would need to pull together (and stop moaning!) to reach our final destination at Wallsend in North Tyneside.
After taking the perilously steep rocky path down to the gap, it took me a long time to get my treasured photo of the tree on its own – just out of frame were hundreds of hikers and day-trippers admiring the perfect symmetry of the tree’s branches as they swayed and bounced in the wind, as if breathing in and out.
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One of the most photographed trees in the country – you always saw this tree at its most picturesque, backlit by the sky in all seasons, but the truth was, it was rarely alone. Millions of us have been to visit and touch the historic tree that weathered 300 years in the gap in the Roman wall near Crag Lough in Northumberland National Park.
When that tree was just a sapling, the Hanoverian King George I was on the throne. It’s also known as the Robin Hood tree – it wasn’t the only wooden actor when it starred alongside Kevin Costner in the 1991 movie, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie. Since then it has watched over couples getting engaged, coach parties eating their Tesco Meal Deals and my own exhausted green-haired teenager demanding to be airlifted to our hostel.
Even my hardened daughter is heartbroken at the sight of the chainsawed tree, and despairingly asked: “What sort of person would cut that beautiful tree down just because they were made to walk all of Hadrian’s Wall?” I fear she may still be feeling some buried rage. I hope from this wanton ecological destruction, new shoots of green activism among ordinary families will grow. We should all be a nation of tree huggers – without trees, we are lost.
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