Coopers Field Turkey Oak, Bute Park
Bute Park
Between 2016 and 2023 this oak put on 27 centimetres of girth, close to four centimetres a year, which is the growth of a tree nowhere near finished. It is already the champion Turkey oak of Glamorgan, named in 2023 as the largest of its kind recorded in the county, 33 metres tall and 4.13 metres round. Turkey oaks are not native here. They come from southern Europe and Asia Minor, and they grow faster than Britain's own oaks. The bark gives it away, mauve-grey and broken into squarish plates, quite unlike the deep furrows of a pedunculate oak. How it got to Coopers Field is not on record. Andrew Pettigrew, head gardener to the third Marquess of Bute from 1873, laid out circular beds featuring Turkey oaks in this park, and it would be tidy to say this is one of his. No source says so, and the park's own survey gives the tree no age at all. If you know when it went in, tell us. What is certain is the setting. The oak stands at the northern end of Coopers Field by the canal side, a short walk from Cardiff Castle and the city centre. It is one of several county champions within a few minutes of each other in Bute Park, which makes an afternoon here a walk from record to record.
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Getting there
North end of Coopers Field, Bute Park, Cardiff
You can recognise it by its mauve-grey bark broken into squarish plates, on a tree 33 metres tall. It stands at the north end of Coopers Field by the canal; the park's other big Turkey oak is at the Sunken Lawn.
Free, open public park (Bute Park), open daily.
Cardiff Central about 20 minutes on foot; Cardiff Queen Street a little closer.
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.