The Hungry Tree

A cast iron bench has been disappearing into this tree for decades, and the tree is winning. Planted a little over a century ago inside the south gate of King's Inns, Ireland's school of law since 1541, the plane grew directly against a Victorian bench and simply kept going. Bark now spills over the seat's arms and back like dough left to rise. Nobody planned it as art. An early photographer noticed the effect and gave it a name that stuck. It has since appeared on guidebook covers and in Robert Ballagh's 1981 book Dublin, turning what the Tree Council of Ireland itself calls an otherwise unremarkable specimen into one of the city's most photographed trees. The tree is younger than almost everything around it. King's Inns has trained Irish barristers since the reign of Henry VIII, while the plane itself was likely seeded sometime between 1900 and 1940. The grounds are free and open during daylight hours, reached through an archway from Henrietta Street. Resist the urge to sit on what remains of the bench.