The Birnam Oak

In Macbeth, the king is safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. This oak is said to be the last tree of that wood still standing, which is a better story than it is history. The real Macbeth died in the 11th century, and this tree is far younger. Not young, though. Estimates from its size put it at roughly 500 to 600 years. The International Oak Society gives the trunk as 7 metres round and the tree as 27 metres tall, while Wikipedia describes the trunk as 5.5 metres wide, which may be the same trunk measured across rather than around. Either way it was already a sizeable oak if, as is believed but not documented, Shakespeare passed through Perthshire with a company of players in 1589. The age shows. The first few metres of the trunk are hollow, the bark is thick with moss, and the long lower limbs reach so far out that they now rest on timber props. Specialists had recently worked on the hollow trunk when the Oak Society visited in 2016. It grows on low ground behind the Tay's flood banks, was photographed in full leaf in July 2023 and was still on the map in 2025. It stands on the riverside path on the south bank of the Tay, a few minutes from Birnam village, free at any hour. A few steps along the same path is a sycamore that local tourist literature calls an oak.