Baikushev's Pine (Baikushevata Mura)

By the story Bulgarians tell about it, this pine was already standing when their country began. Khan Asparuh founded the First Bulgarian Empire around 681, and Baikushev's Pine is described everywhere as his contemporary, which is where the widely repeated figure of about 1,300 years comes from. No source names a ring count, a core sample or the person who did the work, so read the age as a tradition carried forward rather than a measurement anyone published. The trunk is less arguable. It runs 7.8 metres round and 2.22 metres through, under 24 metres of crown, which is exceptional for the species. Pinus heldreichii grows slowly, at altitude, on thin limestone soil in the Balkan mountains, and that is the usual recipe for a tree that outlasts the states around it. It carries a forester's name. Kostadin Baikushev identified it, and what has grown up around it since is a small pilgrimage: a fence to keep feet off the root plate, a wooden staircase, a parking area 400 metres past the Banderitsa hut and a bus that will drop you near enough. The better way to arrive is on foot. It is about 12.6 kilometres up from Bansko, roughly three and a half hours through Pirin National Park, and there is nothing to pay at the far end.