The untimely and shocking felling of the Sycamore Gap tree prompted a national outpouring of grief. Here, we salute the proud and lonely sentinels of Britain.
The the Lone Tree of Llyn Padarn
The Lone Tree on Llyn Padarn lake in LLanberis, Wales.
Beautiful in isolation, roots awash and trunk bent, the Lone Tree of Llyn Padarn, Llanberis, North Wales, clings to its promontory. A magnet for photographers, the birch in its unlikely spot seems placed by some great artist to draw the eye to the distant hills.
The hawthorns of Conistone Dib
Conistone Dib, Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales.
Defiant in the teeth of the endless winds, valiant hawthorns rise incongruously from limestone pavement above the glacial gorge Conistone Dib in the Yorkshire Dales.
The pine tree at Bratley View
Bratley View, New Forest National Park, Hampshire.
Might a visitor glimpse the ghost of William the Conqueror in the distance, galloping along the sandy tracks in pursuit of deer and wild boar? The Norman king who created Britain’s oldest royal hunting ground would surely recognise Bratley View in the New Forest.
The tree that dips its toes into Loch Lomond
The lone oak tree in Milarrochy Bay, Loch Lomond, Scotland.
Was it a greedy jay trying to carry too many acorns that dropped one at the edge of Loch Lomond? The places trees choose to put down roots, as here on Milarrochy Bay, despite rocks and thin earth, defy imagination.
The mighty trees that farmers couldn’t bear to fell
A lone oak tree in a field of rape seed crop, Oxfordshire.
Symphony in gold and green: a noble Oxfordshire oak tree, neatly encircled by a thoughtful farmer’s tractor wheels, stands in a sea of oil-seed rape, giving a home to birds and insects and relief to the human eye.
Gone but not forgotten: The tree at Sycamore Gap
The lost tree of Sycamore Gap pictured with the remnants of an aurora.
Solitary splendour lost to a senseless crime: Sycamore Gap, Northumberland, as it once was, the great tree standing out dark against the glitter of the Milky Way.
Jason Goodwin: How to fill the Sycamore Gap
Our columnist on how some good might come out of the felling of the sycamore in the gap.
One of Britain’s most famous trees has been cut down as vandals target Sycamore Gap at Hadrian’s Wall
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Solitary daily pacing of Hadrian’s Wall, in the footsteps of Roman soldiers, brings back family memories for Fiona Reynolds.
The extraordinary tale of Hadrian’s Wall: ‘Men have been deified for trifles compared with this admirable structure’
What once kept out hordes of bloodthirsty warriors is, nearly 2,000 years later, barely proof against the most timid of
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