The first five of 49 saplings grown from the illegally felled Sycamore Gap tree have been planted as part of National Tree Week. It’s hoped that the ‘Trees of Hope’, which have been gifted to community projects across the UK, will stand as a source of inspiration and foster love for the natural world.
The Sycamore Gap tree was a well known and much loved landmark that stood in a dip in Hadrian’s Wall. It was around 120 years old when it was illegally cut down in September 2023. The senseless act caused widespread anger.
“It was the quick thinking of our conservationists in the aftermath of the felling that has allowed the Sycamore Gap tree to live on,” says Hilary McGrady, Director General of the National Trust. Seeds from the tree were collected, planted and cared for at the charity’s Plant Conservation Centre in Devon. Two years on, they now stand four to six feet tall and are sturdy enough to be planted outside.
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Around 500 applications were received for the 49 saplings – one to represent each foot of the tree’s height at the time of its felling. Recipients were carefully chosen by a panel of experts.
One sapling has been planted at the Tree Sanctuary in Coventry. The project, which was set up by three teenagers who call themselves the Tree Amigos, rescues trees that have been vandalised.
A second has been planted at Greenham Common, former home of the long-running Women’s Peace Camp, whilst a third is putting down roots at a site that commemorates Staffordshire’s Minnie Pit mining disaster.
The Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds and the charity Veterans in Crisis, in Sunderland, have also planted trees.
Andrew Poad, General Manager for the National Trust’s Hadrian Wall properties says: “Over the next couple of years, the saplings will really start to take shape, and because sycamores are so hardy, we’re confident they’ll be able to withstand a range of conditions.”
The remaining saplings will be planted out this winter, all in publicly accessible spaces to enable as many people as possible to feel part of the iconic tree’s legacy.
“To be able to keep the story of the Sycamore Gap alive in all four corners of the UK and in so many different settings is a fitting tribute,” says Poad, “and we hope that, just like the original tree, these young saplings will touch many people’s lives.”
- History of Britain's forests and woodlands
- Ancient tree 'older than Stonehenge' found in English bog
Top image: Fixing labels to the Sycamore Gap tree saplings. Credit: National Trust Images, James Dobson
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