The Fortingall Yew

At probably between 2000 and 3000 years old (and by some estimates perhaps as old as 9,000 years), the Fortingall Yew, in Perthshire, is reputed to be the oldest tree in Great Britain (an accolade it shares, disputably, with the Llangernyw Yew in Conwy, Wales, which is of similar age).

It still thrives (though parts of the original male tree appear to be changing sex, now growing berries!), despite losing its main trunk in the 19th century (which was once 16m or so in girth), and many of its branches, to souvenir-makers, and will probably and hopefully live for centuries to come.

In its unquestioned lifetime, it's outseen two world wars, terrible pandemics, rebellions, the Stewart royal dynasty, Robert the Bruce, the real Macbeth - and probably also the coming of Christianity to Scotland, the departure (and arrival) of the Romans, and conceivably the tree was a healthy young sapling when Christ walked on earth. There is even a local legend that Pontius Pilate was Scottish, and grew up playing in the shade of the tree, (which historians would have some cause to doubt if anyone took seriously!).

Yew can live for many centuries (easily and often 600 years or more - beyond this the trunk begins to hollow out and ring-counting makes the true age hard to determine), because it can successfully split as it grows larger, without any breaks in the surface being susceptible to disease, and even at very advanced age can grow new shoots from the base of the tree, or even directly from the roots some distance from it.

They're also very beautiful <3