The Sycamore Gap: four other significant tree destructions from history
The felling of a single sycamore tree prompted an outpouring of grief last week.
- The felling of a single sycamore tree prompted an outpouring of grief last week.
- The tree – known as the “Sycamore Gap” – had been an iconic landmark and its location, Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, is a protected Unesco world heritage site.
- Planted in the late 19th century, the roots of the Sycamore Gap tree reached deep into individual and collective memory.
1. The Holy Thorn of Glastonbury
- After reaching Glastonbury in Somerset, he climbed Wearyall Hill, rested and thrust his staff into the ground.
- Being rooted in the “holyest erth” was no guarantee that the holy thorn would be immune from attack, however.
- But despite its chequered history, traditions associated with the holy thorn endure.
- After the damage caused to the Holy Thorn in 1647, cuttings were taken from which a tree now growing in Glastonbury Abbey is believed to descend.
2. One Tree Hill
- A similarly chequered history belongs to the 125-year-old Monterey Pine which sat on top One Tree Hill or Maungakiekie in Auckland, New Zealand.
- The pine had been planted on the peak to replace a native tōtara tree, chopped down by a European settler.
3. Newton’s apple trees
- There is a proliferation of “Newton’s apple” trees supposedly descended from the tree under which physicist Isaac Newton devised his law of universal gravity.
- As a result, “Newton’s apple trees” are now found across the world, their roots connecting to create a library of human history and discovery.
4. The Shawshank Redemption white oak
- In 2016, strong winds uprooted a majestic white oak in Mansfield, Ohio in the US, made famous by the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.
- Film fans were distraught and souvenir-hunters rushed to the site, removing parts of the fallen tree.
- Their branches and roots connect the brief history of humanity and the deeper history of our planet.