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The UK’s Tree of the Year has been crowned for 2024

A 400-plus-year-old oak in the Highlands is officially the UK’s best tree this year

Annie McNamee
Written by
Annie McNamee
Contributor, Time Out London and UK
Skippinish Oak, a large tree in a clearing
Photograph: Woodland Trust
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If only trees could talk. They could tell us, firsthand, stories from centuries ago, of how the world has changed around them and what it’s like to outlive generation after generation. They’d also be able to give cool acceptance speeches if they were to win ‘Tree of the Year’, as one oak from Lochaber Scotland has done this week. 

A couple of months ago, we reported on the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year 2024 shortlist, which featured 12 trees from across the nation, each with its own reasons for being nominated. For instance there was the Hampshire tree which looks as if it’s been tied in knots, but if you’re unimpressed by mere appearances you might’ve preferred the hollow trunk where tea parties were held hundreds of years ago. The general public was invited to vote for its favourites, and thus the nail-biting wait began.

But that wait is now over, as the winner has finally been announced, and the victor is the Skipinnish Oak, hidden deep in the Highlands. The mammoth tree has been said to have ‘enchanting’ powers, but wasn’t actually known to arborists in the UK until the Scottish trad band of the same name led them to it. 

Skippinish Oak, a large tree in a clearing
Photograph: Woodland Trust

The band’s piper said he was ‘delighted’ to hear of the success, saying, ‘the tree has held a special place in my heart since my father first described it to me, and the first time I saw it many years ago.’ 

The oak won 21 percent of the overall vote, narrowly beating out a 550 year old one on the site of Charles Darwin’s childhood home. It’ll now move onto the European Tree of the Year contest, where it will compete against its cousins on the continent in hopes to be named Europe’s best. A sapling can only dream. 

You can read more about the Skippinish Oak on the Woodland Trust website here.

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