Kongeegen (the King Oak)
estimated 1,500 to 2,000 years old, based on a 1965 tree-ring investigationPedunculate Oak
Three ancient oaks made this forest famous. Two of them are dead, Storkeegen since 1980 and Snoegen since 1991, and the third is the reason to come. Kongeegen, the King Oak, is a hollow shell held upright by supports, and the foundation that owns the forest still writes about it in the present tense: the oldest tree, still alive. A tree-ring investigation in 1965 put it at 1,500 to 2,000 years, which would make it the oldest oak in northern Europe. The estate's own page enjoys the thought that it may have sprouted around year zero. It was larger once. At its peak the trunk was four metres across and fourteen metres round. The last main limb broke off in 1973, and half the shell and a side branch have gone since, so the Danish Dendrological Society's figure of 12.55 metres describes a tree already past its own maximum. The crown, for something this old, is in surprisingly good order. The name comes from Frederik VII, who lived at Jægerspris Slot from 1854 and had the first props installed under it. Local telling has the king and Countess Danner sitting side by side on horseback inside the hollow trunk. In 1986 Prince Henrik planted a graft taken from it in the castle park, so there is a young copy of this tree a short distance away. The forest is open and free. The tree is fenced, and you look at it from outside.
The button above opens directions in your maps app. No train station in Jægerspris; reached by car or bicycle via Strandvejen north of the town, then on foot into the forest. Nearest larger town/station is Frederikssund, a short drive away.
- Species
- Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur)
- Age estimate
- estimated 1,500 to 2,000 years old, based on a 1965 tree-ring investigation
- Location
- Jægerspris Nordskov (Jægerspris North Forest), north of Strandvejen, near Jægerspris, Sjælland, Denmark (Jægerspris Nordskov forest, managed by Kong Frederik den Syvendes Stiftelse (the Jægerspris Slot estate foundation))
- Access
- Free, publicly accessible forest, but the tree itself is fenced off: visitors may not walk or ride up to the trunk, only view it from outside the protective fence, per the managing foundation's own current website. Reachable on foot through the North Forest; no ticket or booking needed.
- Getting there
- No train station in Jægerspris; reached by car or bicycle via Strandvejen north of the town, then on foot into the forest. Nearest larger town/station is Frederikssund, a short drive away.
Ticking this one off, walks past several more, and your collection growing city by city: that is the Ancient Trees app.
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