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Original poster

The Sycamore Gap Tree

183 replies

PassingStranger · 30/04/2025 18:19

2 men on trial for felling the tree.
Aren't they embarrassed, what on earth possessed them?
They weren't exactly young either.

Grown men
Bet their parents are proud not?
Grow up.

OP posts:
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5
Maitri108 · 30/04/2025 19:52

It was prememidated and they weren't drunk. They did it in a couple of minutes and kept a wedge of tree as a keepsake. They wanted to cause outrage and thought they were very funny.

SmegmaCausesBV · 30/04/2025 19:54

Maitri108 · 30/04/2025 19:52

It was prememidated and they weren't drunk. They did it in a couple of minutes and kept a wedge of tree as a keepsake. They wanted to cause outrage and thought they were very funny.

Exactly - the kind of idiots calling people "snowflakes" for having a moral conscience.

AlmostSummer25 · 30/04/2025 19:55

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 30/04/2025 18:42

It’s weird, I feel upset about it, well relatively, as do so many people, and I am puzzled why, can’t really rationalise it with so much going on in the world. Very odd. Hope they get a severe punishment!

Because it's a beautiful tree that had been there over 100 years, enjoyed by many. A beautiful living thing that 2 dickheads decided to kill.

I'm more concerned about anybody that doesn't find it sad.

SmegmaCausesBV · 30/04/2025 19:56

I think the papers should do expose's on their lives - chat to their past girlfriends about their idiocy and dredge up as many embarrassing stories as possible - make the fame work in the worst possible ways for them.

B1indEye · 30/04/2025 19:57

GourmetLettuceMix · 30/04/2025 18:28

It is a bit pathetic, but also....it's just a tree. They shouldn't have done it, but there are more important things to be outraged about.

Have you consulted a specialist about your outrage deficiency, the rest of us have the ability to be outraged by numerous things at any point in any day.

Or, you know, interested in the goings on in the world around us

AlmostSummer25 · 30/04/2025 19:58

Aizen · 30/04/2025 19:35

@jewelcase I don't know if it's a typo, but the Guardian report says this about the amount of the damage being claimed re the tree -

Graham, of Carlisle, and Carruthers, of Wigton, are jointly charged with causing criminal damage worth £622,191 to the tree. They are also charged with causing £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco world heritage site. The wall and the tree belong to the National Trust.

how on earth can you put monetary value on a tree???

AlmostSummer25 · 30/04/2025 19:58

B1indEye · 30/04/2025 19:57

Have you consulted a specialist about your outrage deficiency, the rest of us have the ability to be outraged by numerous things at any point in any day.

Or, you know, interested in the goings on in the world around us

Show quote history

Yeah, I have enough outrage to go round!!

heartsinvisiblefury · 30/04/2025 20:00

GourmetLettuceMix · 30/04/2025 18:28

It is a bit pathetic, but also....it's just a tree. They shouldn't have done it, but there are more important things to be outraged about.

Yes, it was ‘just a tree’ to THEM. Thing is though it’s not ‘just a tree’ and most people with a semblance of what is decent know and understand that.

Lounderflounder · 30/04/2025 20:01

GourmetLettuceMix · 30/04/2025 18:28

It is a bit pathetic, but also....it's just a tree. They shouldn't have done it, but there are more important things to be outraged about.

It was an iconic sight and area in the North East. One of the most famous sights in the UK. It's been shot in countless films etc too.

Thousands of photos and paintings sold of it etc.

It's not just a tree.

heartsinvisiblefury · 30/04/2025 20:01

Why can’t some people on this thread understand that people can be upset abs outraged by more than one thing?

NameChangedOfc · 30/04/2025 20:05

neverknowinglyunreasonable · 30/04/2025 18:34

I don't think it is "just a tree". It's the mindset of someone who plans, goes out of their way to carry it out, films and gloats about destroying something which so many people found joy in. I think it reflects on problems in wider society. Maybe I'm being a bit dramatic but that's how it feels.

I should probably use the word 'allegedly' somewhere in this post.

Show quote history

This. It's deliberately antisocial.

HugelyExpensiveCrystalDuck · 30/04/2025 20:08

GourmetLettuceMix · 30/04/2025 18:28

It is a bit pathetic, but also....it's just a tree. They shouldn't have done it, but there are more important things to be outraged about.

Don’t you live in New Zealand? No wonder you think there are more important things to worry about.

LittleGem87 · 30/04/2025 20:10

I know the official last person to see/take a photo of the tree and she luckily slept in the hostel that night instead of wild camping as she intended (very close to the tree) on her walk of the wall!

SmegmaCausesBV · 30/04/2025 20:11

NameChangedOfc · 30/04/2025 20:05

This. It's deliberately antisocial.

Show quote history

Completely agree. I often wonder if so many men are on steroids they've begun losing human emotion and empathy as well as brain cells.

LittleGem87 · 30/04/2025 20:11

Imagine waking up to the sound of a chainsaw outside the tent 😬😳

milveycrohn · 30/04/2025 20:17

I was in Northumberland last year and walked a small section of the Hadrians Wall Walk where the tree was (now a tree stump).
The point is that the Sycamore Tree is/was iconic on that section of the wall.
It is called Sycamore Gap because of the tree.
Local artists paint it. Local photographers take pictures and create different pictures due to time of day and year.
It features on calenders and many other items that depict Hadrians Wall, etc
So the tree was important to the local economy.
I think an appropriate punishment would be difficult to determine.

jewelcase · 30/04/2025 20:19

Aizen · 30/04/2025 19:35

@jewelcase I don't know if it's a typo, but the Guardian report says this about the amount of the damage being claimed re the tree -

Graham, of Carlisle, and Carruthers, of Wigton, are jointly charged with causing criminal damage worth £622,191 to the tree. They are also charged with causing £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, a Unesco world heritage site. The wall and the tree belong to the National Trust.

Ah well if that’s true then the chances of a significant custodial sentence are much higher.

Also there’s the issue of compensation. The judge can choose to award compensation to the victims. Not sure who owned the tree (National Trust?) but it would go to them.

TheHerboriste · 30/04/2025 20:26

SmegmaCausesBV · 30/04/2025 19:56

I think the papers should do expose's on their lives - chat to their past girlfriends about their idiocy and dredge up as many embarrassing stories as possible - make the fame work in the worst possible ways for them.

Agree. they look like a couple of useless, ignorant, toxic tools.

I doubt they'll get much of a sentence as the jury is being instructed to think of it as "just a tree being felled" and to set aside emotion.

So I hope they are relentlessly flogged and published by the media, social media and in their private lives.

LlynTegid · 30/04/2025 20:29

milveycrohn · 30/04/2025 20:17

I was in Northumberland last year and walked a small section of the Hadrians Wall Walk where the tree was (now a tree stump).
The point is that the Sycamore Tree is/was iconic on that section of the wall.
It is called Sycamore Gap because of the tree.
Local artists paint it. Local photographers take pictures and create different pictures due to time of day and year.
It features on calenders and many other items that depict Hadrians Wall, etc
So the tree was important to the local economy.
I think an appropriate punishment would be difficult to determine.

A lifetime on St Kilda perhaps? Where they can do no harm.

Mumnotbruh · 30/04/2025 20:38

GourmetLettuceMix · 30/04/2025 18:28

It is a bit pathetic, but also....it's just a tree. They shouldn't have done it, but there are more important things to be outraged about.

If it was "just a tree" it wouldn't have been headline news when it happened. The fact it made news headlines here and around the world indicates that it wasn't "just a tree".

Motherknowsrest · 30/04/2025 20:53

Meadowfinch · 30/04/2025 19:08

I think it sums up a very small section of our society.

Selfish, stupid, ignorant, vacuous, destructive, pointless.

Utterly valueless human beings who are an embarrassment to their families and their communities.

My hunch is 20% of the population are the ones who cause 99% of the crap we have to deal with.

Personally I wouldn't be sorry if they had a short custodial sentence. After that they should be litter picking and planting trees for life.

TeaAndStrumpets · 30/04/2025 21:07

I sometimes think we ought to bring back the stocks.

ARichtGoodDram · 30/04/2025 21:09

how on earth can you put monetary value on a tree???

I assume in part the costs to deal with its removal and the likes will be included. It won't have been cheap to get the machinery up to it to sort out the clearance.

Perhaps even the loss of income that the tree brought in to the local area will be factored as well.

SirChenjins · 30/04/2025 21:14

Who knew there was such a thing?! Calculation of tree value explained here - www.treelaw.co.uk/sycamore-gap-trial/

AmandaHoldensLips · 30/04/2025 21:24

I am still stunned by the depths of their dickheadery for carrying out such a mindless act of destruction on a such a beautiful - and indeed world famous - tree and location.

What a pair of utterly moronic arseholes.

I'm hoping they'll go in the witness box and demonstrate to the world just how far their levels of stupidity go.

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