Sycamore Gap tree could come back to life as experts say stump may regrow

12 November 2023 , 19:29

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Even if the tree were to grow back from its stump, it would probably look different (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

There may be hope for the felled Sycamore Gap tree, as experts say there is a good chance it could grow back from the stump.

The celebrated 50ft tree next to Hadrian’s Wall was cut down in September in an apparently senseless attack after growing at the spot for over 300 years.

Now Andy Beer, operations director of the National Trust, which owns the site where the tree stood near Crag Lough in Northumberland, said the stump will be given the chance to regrow before any attempts to replace it.

The public were appalled when the natural icon was felled.

But Mr Beer said: “We still have the stump of the tree. It should regrow. You never know. It has been coppiced quite brutally. We won’t know until the spring, because it’s a deciduous tree and it’s not growing now.

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The stump could regrow (Newcastle Chronicle)

“By the second summer, you normally get a sense if it will work. We want to see what happens in the spring. If the stump doesn’t regrow we’ve got one set of decisions to make; if it does we’ve got another. We just have to wait and see.”

Even if it did regrow, Mr Beer said it could well look different, perhaps with more than one trunk coming out of the stump.

Four men and a teenager have been arrested and bailed in connecton with the felling incident (PA)

In 2016 the sycamore was crowned English tree of the year by the Woodland Trust. It is being kept at a storage facility by the National Trust.

Four men and a teenager have been arrested and bailed in connecton with the felling incident.

Stephen White