The Camperdown Elm of St Cuthbert's
West End
Approximate location.
A tree with no straight branches grows by the main door of St Cuthbert's Church, one of the oldest parish sites in Edinburgh even though the current building only dates to 1894. The Camperdown elm is a weeping cultivar discovered by accident around 1835 in the forest at Camperdown House near Dundee, when the Earl's head forester found a young elm growing contorted and low to the ground rather than upright. Every Camperdown elm alive today, including this one, is a graft from that single original tree, since the variety cannot grow from seed and only survives by cutting, making each specimen a genetic clone traceable to one 19th century Scottish forest. This one has been measured at 63cm in diameter at breast height, a girth some local sources call a contender for the largest of its kind in Scotland, though no national tree register confirms that specific claim and it is offered here with that caveat attached. What is not in doubt is the shape: branches that arch downward and knot into themselves instead of reaching up, giving the tree a low, tangled canopy unlike anything else in the churchyard around it. It stands free to view, steps from Princes Street Gardens.
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Getting there
St Cuthbert's Church, 5 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH1 2EP
You can recognise it by the branches, arching down and knotting into themselves instead of reaching up, a low tangled canopy unlike anything else around it. It stands by the main door of St Cuthbert's.
2 min walk from Princes Street, at the west end of Princes Street Gardens
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.