Defynnog Yew

A certificate signed by the botanist David Bellamy, kept at a café near this churchyard, says the great yew of Defynnog is about 5,000 years old. The people who have looked hardest are more cautious. Wikipedia reports that an investigation does not support the figure and calls 2,000 to 3,000 years more likely; one assessment gives 3,018. Toby Hindson of the Ancient Yew Group sets a minimum of 1,300 years, on the hard evidence the group holds. When the 5,000 figure reached the press in 2014, it came with the label of Britain's oldest tree. That is a claim several Welsh yews make, and we make it for none of them. What is not disputed is the size. The tree grows from a mound about eight metres across and a metre high, as nine stems with a combined girth of about 11 metres. A second, smaller yew about five metres west has been shown by DNA to be genetically identical, possibly grown from a drooping branch that touched the ground and rooted. Two more ancient yews stand on the south side, and those are not clones. The church of St Cynog is mostly Norman and 15th century, and its porch holds a stone inscribed in both ogham and Latin. Graves have been dug between the two northern yews. Look closely at the smaller tree and you may find a small patch of albino leaves among the green.