Popular opinion in this corner of Radnorshire makes the Discoed yew the oldest in Wales, some 5,000 years old. The figure goes back to Allen Meredith's graphs relating a yew's size to its age, and the monument guide Wondermondo, which repeats it, is careful to add that no one knows this for sure and that it is most likely not true. Several other Welsh yews carry rival claims. We back none of them. The tree itself needs no exaggeration. The Ancient Yew Group measured it at 9.68 metres round, 90 centimetres up, in 1998; another figure in circulation is 11.28 metres, and a 1994 gazetteer put it at 22 feet. Yews this hollow and irregular are hard to measure the same way twice. It stands north of the small church of St Michael, first mentioned in 1291, with a second ancient yew in the same churchyard, 6.71 metres round, and a third notable one by the lane to the car park. A spring at the churchyard gate has become a well. Nobody has dated the tree in a way that settles anything, so we give it no age. Our most recent record of it is not recent either, so if you visit St Michael's, tell us how it is doing and send a photograph.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
St Michael's churchyard, Discoed, Presteigne, Powys LD8 2NR
You can recognise it as the giant yew north of the church, the larger of the two ancient yews in the churchyard. It stands in St Michael's churchyard, Discoed; a smaller notable yew is by the car-park lane.
No railway and no regular bus. Discoed is about 5 km west of Presteigne, a short drive or an hour's walk.
In fruit
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.
- In the official register: Ancient Yew Group database, Discoed (Tim Hills, 1998)
- ancient-yew.org
- wondermondo.com