The Woodstock Champion Coast Redwood

Woodstock calls this its Champion Coast redwood and then, unusually for a champion, publishes no number at all. No height, no girth. The estate's 2015 page names it alongside the tallest silver fir in Ireland and a Bentham cypress, and leaves the redwood's size to your own eyes. Champion is the title tree recorders give to the biggest known tree of its kind in a given area. Woodstock does not say which area or by which measure, so the title stands here as the estate's own. There is a second puzzle. The national heritage tree register lists two coast redwoods in the arboretum, about 67 metres apart, both recorded as exceptional specimens and both put at 150 to 200 years old in 2009. Which of the pair is the champion is not stated anywhere. They are treated as one stop here, with the pin set between them, and the register's age carried forward to roughly 150 to 215 years today. Stand between them and you can judge the contest yourself. The species is native to the California coast. These two share the arboretum with Woodstock's old giant sequoia. Woodstock is run by Kilkenny County Council. Entry is five euro per car, and the gardens close whenever a yellow, orange or red weather warning is in force. If you know which redwood holds the title, or have a measurement for either, tell us.