Jacob and Esau, the Dalzell Yews

In 2022 two climbers went up a pair of yews in a Motherwell wood with a tape measure. Jacob came out at 29.8 metres and Esau at 29.5. The Arboricultural Association's magazine, which reported the climb, says Jacob could be the tallest yew in Europe. The record it was set against, a yew at Belvoir Castle in England, stood at 28.4 metres when measured in 1987. Yews are usually broad, dark and not especially tall, which is what makes this pair odd. They grow either side of a path on a riverbank, at the foot of a bowl-shaped hollow in the woods below the Dalzell Estate arboretum, close enough to count as one stop. Esau is the thicker of the two, though nobody has published its girth. Neither has a published age. The trees are registered with the Tree Register of the British Isles. We have not found an exact position for them, and our pin marks Dalzell House rather than the trees, so head for the arboretum and go down into the woods below it. The estate is a free public park; the magazine report does not say whether the path to this spot is open to everyone, so if you get there, tell us how you found it.