The Woodland Trust is running the Ancient Tree Hunt. It reckons that the Fortingall Yew in Scotland, which could be 5,000 years old, is the oldest in the UK, but that there could be many others, unrecorded, that get close to that, or at least run into many centuries.
The five-year project aims to create a database of at least 100,000 ancient trees by 2011 and will rely heavily on the public to find suitable candidates for the list in their own areas …ancient black poplars are found on flood plains in meadows and occasionally in ancient hedges.
Ancient ash clings to limestone rock in the Northern dales. In the Derbyshire dales, coppiced lime stools are so old that the rock that they sit on has eroded away from their roots.
In the Scottish Borders, ancient wood pasture oaks can be found at Cadzow and Dalkeith and ancient Scots pine survive in the Caledonian Forest way up in the Highlands. Wales also has a history of hunting forests, a few of which were Royal forests, where occasional ancient trees can still be found. In addition, old parkland oak survive in ancient parks such as Dinefwr Park and Chirk Park.
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