The Belvoir Oak

In the winter of 2016 a ranger counted the acorns on this oak. There were six, and he called that remarkable, because the tree by then barely had enough branches and twigs left to make them. Dan Clarke, senior ranger for the Lagan Valley Regional Park, put it at more than 400 years old and said outright that its condition made an exact age impossible. He measured the girth at just under nine metres. Other authorities go higher. DAERA, the department that manages the forest, calls it the oldest living oak in Ireland at 500 to 600 years, dating it to the 1500s, and fronted a photography exhibition with it here in 2023. The Ancient Tree Forum settles on about 500. And then there is the question nobody has answered in public. Robert Welch photographed a great oak in this forest more than a century ago, already well over 300 years old and known locally as Granddad. Northern Ireland's Remarkable Trees project says Granddad may not be the tree now promoted as the Belvoir Oak, and that two distinct veterans may stand near the Motte, one failing and one healthier. We could not resolve which is which. If you walk this forest and know, tell us. Whichever it is, the wood around it lost roughly a quarter of its trees to sudden oak death in 2014, and this one came through with the help of tree specialists.