Covenanters' Oak
The ‘Covenanter’s Oak’
(Quercus robur) may be more than 800 years of age, it should certainly be considered as ‘Veteran’ and or ‘Ancient’
(It is listed as one of the top 100 heritage trees of Scotland!). The tree has developed a broad, spreading canopy, commensurate with that seen in trees that have been open-grown. The present canopy is relatively young, having developed following dramatic tree surgery works in the form of a dramatic crown reduction some 25 years ago. The pruning wounds resulting from that tree surgery work are quite large, some greater than 25cm in diameter, indicating that the canopy at the time of its reduction was also broad and spreading. The tree measures 10.8m in height,
(following a gentle crown reduction in the summer of 2008), with a circumference of 6.7m measured at 0.9 and 1.3m above ground level. Following the partial collapse of the scaffold branch framework in 2008 the tree canopy is now supported by four large scaffold limbs, arising collectively from the stem in the region of 2.5m above ground level.
All the four remaining scaffold limbs are host to numerous defects ranging from large old pruning wounds, cavities, cracks and splits throughout, to large areas of decaying wood exposed through lost bark. The fallen limb, torn out, from the group union at a height between 1.3 and 2.5m resulted in a huge wound
(extending into the main stem by 76cm over a circumference of 165cm) further compounded by a split running all the way through the tree’s stem, aligned north to south from ground level to 2.5m. The four remaining scaffold limbs and associated canopies are evenly distributed, two to either side of the north south split in the stem. These have been cable braced and propped post failure and the canopies of each scaffold limb have been reduced to minimise gravitational end loading and wind resistance; the tree continues to thrive.
