Sycamore Gap - tree has been felled!

[NepheliLoux]

Looks like someone has deliberately felled the famous tree in Sycamore Gap. I can’t believe anyone would do such a thing. I don’t normally get emotional but this has really upset me. It’s absolutely irreplaceable.

Hadrian's Wall is a pretty well-used, popular walking path. I cannot imagine it being anything to do with land disputes or issues with walkers being on private land. Whilst that tree was a famous landmark on the trail it's absence won't deter people from walking there. It's still a beautiful walk.

Locals will know and I’ll bet my house it’s someone similar to this situation.

Yes I remember that case. Just Googled and can only find this article that says someone was arrested, whether there was ever a prosecution who knows.

Man arrested in Walton-on-Thames mystery tree chopping case | Forestry Journal

There is some local gossip about who has done it but it seems quite far fetched

I have wondered the same

That was the one I was thinking of. Hope there aren't any more.

It's an evil thing to do.

No words, furious and upset about this.

And the award for today’s most ignorant remark on the internet goes to….

I'm livid about it. But nothing will happen. Authorities don't have the time or money to clamp down on environmental destruction and not enough people care. Just think of all the plastic lawns ruining streets and nothing can be done about it.

This particular tree was 34 years old; it was planted in 1989 to replace the older tree which was diseased and unsafe, but there has been a tree on the spot for hundreds of years.

Another Northumbrian lass here; I have such an ache of sadness about this. A family member is getting married next year in this part of Northumberland and had planned to have some photos taken on the day by the tree 😥

This is a vicious attack on our cultural capital. But similar has happened before.
The Glastonbury hawthorn was so repeatedly mutilated it had to be moved.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Thorn#:~:text=The%20%22original%22%20Glastonbury%20thorn%20was,branches%20cut%20off%20in%202010.

That's really sad. Maybe someone like Antony Gormley could be commissioned to make a sculpture of the tree to stand in its place.

I was brought up in a pit village in Northumberland that had the oldest working blacksmith's forge in England (or so I was told many times by local residents). As a small child I was taken there many times to see the horses being shod. The local council were desperate to clear the site for a car park as part of the development of the new town. There were many protests and petitions. Then one night, over a weekend, the smithy was demolished. Nobody claimed responsibility, but the tarmac for the car park was laid within weeks.
They had the cheek to call it Smithy Square.
Vandalism and greed is rife everywhere. Some people have no sense of history, heritage or of what is valuable.
I never saw that beautiful tree, but this just reminds me of how evil people can be.

I'd much rather a real tree be planted in its place!

I just googled 'sycamore gap' on my phone to see exactly where it was - the top hit shown was 'Sycamore Stump'. FFS.

I didn’t realise it was fairly “young”. That’s makes me feel slightly better. Makes sense as we have sycamores in our estate that look a similar age and it was built about 35 years ago. Hopefully it will be replanted.

I live near a beautiful city centre park where 50 trees were vandalised a couple of years ago. It is just shocking and I would love to know the kind of person/people who would even think of doing that and how their mind works. I found this story today very upsetting.

Devastated. One of my favourite areas to visit is irreparably destroyed.

It’s 300 years old. In terms of a sycamore that’s ancient. They only live to around 400 years. It is not a few decades old.

Was wondering if they'd got someone

I’ve felt a bit sick/upset about this all day. we go Northumberland a lot and always spot the tree from the main road - walked to it once a couple of years ago. just really sad - hundreds of years of growth and so much joy for people gone.

Come on, of course it's a f*ing man. It's always a man.

Would that be Plymouth, where the evil people damn well knew it was wrong so did it at dead of night, destroying beautiful trees for no good reason? I saw the photos - wonderful trees decimated by money-grubbing halfwits.

And St Paul’s is just a church, the Mona Lisa is just a painting, the Angel of the North is just a heap of metal, the Barrier Reef is just a load of old molluscs.

Irreplaceable - no.

It will grow back... aren't Sycamore literally famous for hard to kill and sprouting back fast from stumps?

Unnecessary - yes... someone has clearly done it for shock value, to feel their 15 minutes of fame.

I find it strange people are having such a crazy reaction to a tree through... its unlikely to even be dead its just much smaller and needs to regrow again. People die without this level of fanfare.