Derry-Londonderry...call it what you may, but the name comes from the word meaning 'oak grove' in old irish....so the question I asked today on BBC Radio Foyle is "Where is the oldest Oak in Derry?"
What got me thinking was this story about the oldest oak tree in wales, some 1200 years old, which was blown down last week...imagine 1200 years old...amazing.
So Derry being named after the oaks...surely we must have some pretty old ones here...right?
Well I asked about and no-one knows the exact age of derrys oldest oak tree, nor where it is....some suggest Boom Hall, SOme suggect Downhill, some suggest Limavady, some suggest Prehen but the fact is that there has never been a difinitive decision made.
Now we can estimate the trees age by using the Tree Age Formula, but the best we can go is make an approximate, but there are so many factors that affect the size fo a tree such as location, exposure, soil, nutrients, water etc etc that its at best sketchy. But the process of using an Increment Borer we could work out the exact age of a tree, there are experts based in Queens University Belfast who do this kind of test.
Seo the question is....Where is Derrys oldest Oak Tree?
Suggestions please.....or better still take a pic and email it to me gareth@garethaustin.com and then we can put together a likely top 5 and then get the experts in to once and for make a definitive decision...
the woodland trust have an ancient tree map, but its pretty poorly completed, we'll add all our findings to this, I've also asked National Trust Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Holywell Trust, Faughan Valley Landscape Partnership and others for help in this...
The floor is yours folks...lets have the suggestions....could your parish/townland be home to Derrys oldest Oak??
here's a piece from RF from years ago...
and check out this list of the oldest trees in the world
What got me thinking was this story about the oldest oak tree in wales, some 1200 years old, which was blown down last week...imagine 1200 years old...amazing.
So Derry being named after the oaks...surely we must have some pretty old ones here...right?
Well I asked about and no-one knows the exact age of derrys oldest oak tree, nor where it is....some suggest Boom Hall, SOme suggect Downhill, some suggest Limavady, some suggest Prehen but the fact is that there has never been a difinitive decision made.
Now we can estimate the trees age by using the Tree Age Formula, but the best we can go is make an approximate, but there are so many factors that affect the size fo a tree such as location, exposure, soil, nutrients, water etc etc that its at best sketchy. But the process of using an Increment Borer we could work out the exact age of a tree, there are experts based in Queens University Belfast who do this kind of test.
Seo the question is....Where is Derrys oldest Oak Tree?
Suggestions please.....or better still take a pic and email it to me gareth@garethaustin.com and then we can put together a likely top 5 and then get the experts in to once and for make a definitive decision...
the woodland trust have an ancient tree map, but its pretty poorly completed, we'll add all our findings to this, I've also asked National Trust Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Holywell Trust, Faughan Valley Landscape Partnership and others for help in this...
The floor is yours folks...lets have the suggestions....could your parish/townland be home to Derrys oldest Oak??
here's a piece from RF from years ago...
and check out this list of the oldest trees in the world
