The Redford Wood Redwood
Colinton / Dreghorn
Approximate location.
A prince of Siam is said to have planted this giant sequoia when he finished his military training at the barracks next to Redford Wood. That is how the City of Edinburgh Council told it on its heritage tree list, around 2012, putting the planting at approximately a hundred years before. A walker's account from 2017 gives the year as 1909. Neither cites a document, so treat the prince and the date as the story the tree carries rather than a record, and the age as somewhere around 100 to 120 years. It is not alone. Redford Wood holds several giant redwoods of similar girth, along with veteran oak, beech, lime, ash, sycamore and yew. The council picked this one out as a particularly fine specimen, and the 2017 account says it is the only redwood here tied to the person who planted it. The one you want stands in the open ground at the southern end of the wood, north-west of Dreghorn Barracks. The wood is free and open, entered from Redford Road next to Redford Bridge, with good paths round it. Our pin marks the wood, not the trunk, so walk to the southern end and look for the redwood standing clear of the others. The barracks beside it are due to be sold, which may change the ground around the tree.
From people who stood here
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Getting there
Redford Wood, off Redford Road by Redford Bridge, Colinton
You can recognise it as the giant redwood standing in the open at the southern end of Redford Wood, north-west of Dreghorn Barracks; the wood's other redwoods stand among the trees.
Lothian bus along Colinton Road or Redford Road, then walk; the nearest stop is not confirmed.
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.
