Shortlist to choose Scotland's favourite tree unveiled

IT began life as a sapling plucked by a Scottish officer from the mud of no-man's-land during the First World War.

This huge old tree dominates the picturesque ruins of Beauly Priory and is well-known and much-loved in the district.

Lieutenant David McCabe found the young tree while at the front at Passchendale in 1917 and sent it home to his family in Perthshire.

He later died from his wounds and never returned to see it grow to maturity.

But a century later the spruce keeping his name and ­memory alive stands proud in Crieff and has been shorlisted as a contender for the annual Scottish Tree of the Year ­competition.

Members of the public are being urged to support their favourite tree as the new shortlist is unveiled.

The shortlisted trees for Scotland include the Beauly Sycamore, Beauly, a huge tree which has stood for ­several centuries, dominating the ­picturesque ruins of Beauly Priory, a site Mary Queen of Scots visited in 1564 on her way to Dingwall.

Also in the running is The Big Tree, Kirkwall, Orkney, a 200-year-old sycamore which is a well-known and much-loved landmark used as a meeting place by generations of Orcadians and saved twice from felling by public outcry.

The Carnegie Oak in Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline, was planted in 1904 by the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who lived as a boy within a stone’s throw of the park, known locally as The Glen.

The Greenock Cut Oak, passed by thousands of people completing the Greenock Cut Trail every year, stands covered in ferns, mosses and lichens. It is an ambassador for Shielhill Glen Site of Special Scientific Interest and an outdoor classroom.

The Old Holly Bush, Castle Fraser, is believed to be one of the oldest holly trees in Scotland. It has a girth of 10ft 5in, and stands on what is believed to have been the edge of a 17th-century enclosed garden that was surrounded by a holly hedge rather than a wall.

Beccy Speight, Woodland Trust chief executive, said: “Once again, the public have nominated many fantastic trees with truly inspirational stories, which highlight how intrinsic trees are in peoples’ lives.”

A total of 28 trees have been chosen from nominations for four shortlists, six each for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and 10 for England.

One tree will be chosen by experts from the four national winners to go forward to represent the UK in the 2018 ­European Tree of the Year ­contest.

To vote, visit woodlandtrust.org.uk/treeoftheyear