Den Hout maps one tree: the Heilige Eik, an oak at a road junction on the edge of the village, hollowed by a lightning strike about two centuries ago and now carrying its whole crown on a single living branch. Its age is genuinely disputed. Most experts read it as a sixteenth-century planting on the site of an older sacred oak, while a forester who studied it argues for one continuous tree from around 1250. It stands on public ground with its own marker sign, free at any hour.
0 of 1 visited in Den Hout
1
The Heilige Eik (Holy Oak) of Den Hout
Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) · several centuries; a forester who studied it argues it may be the oldest living oak in the Netherlands, planted around 1250 · Den Hout, Oosterhout, Noord-Brabant
A lightning strike about two centuries ago hollowed this oak out and left it open down one side. One living branch now forms the entire crown, and Omroep Brabant reports it leafs out densely every summer regardless.
How old it is depends on who you ask, and the disagreement is a real one rather than a sloppy one. nl.wikipedia says most experts take today's tree to be a sixteenth-century planting on the site of an earlier medieval Heilige Eik, first named in a land deed of 1353. Joris Hellevoort, a forester with Het Utrechts Landschap who has studied it, argues instead that it is one continuous tree planted around 1250, which would put it near 750 years old and possibly make it the oldest living oak in the country. His case has been covered by national news. Nobody has settled it.
Either way the ground is older than the tree. The name points to a probable pre-Christian tree shrine on the same spot, and the oak appears on the mayoral chain of office of Oosterhout.
It is not a big tree: about four metres round and 13 metres tall, standing at a plain road junction between Vrachelen and Den Hout with a marker sign beside it. Oosterhout has been fitting metal supports to keep it from snapping in high wind. It came second in a regional tree of the year contest, which for a tree running on one branch is a respectable result.
Read more and get directions →