The Llangernyw Yew
disputed: roughly 1,500 to 5,000 yearsEuropean Yew
A spirit is said to speak from this tree once a year. Every 31 October, Welsh folklore holds, a voice called the Angelystor, the Recording Angel, calls out from inside the trunk the names of parishioners who will die before the next Halloween. The tree behind the story is a yew in the churchyard of St Digain's, in the small Conwy valley village of Llangernyw, and whatever you make of the legend, its size is not in doubt: a trunk 10.9 metres round, split so long ago into several thick stems that a first glance reads it as a stand of trees rather than one. Its age is where the honesty has to sit. A 2002 certificate, still displayed at the churchyard gate, put it at 4,000 to 5,000 years and helped win it a place among the Tree Council's Fifty Great British Trees that year. The Woodland Trust is more careful: it calls that figure disputed and suggests the tree may instead be roughly as old as the church beside it, founded some 1,500 years ago. Yew wood rots from the inside as it ages, erasing the growth rings that would settle the question, so nobody has. Eight younger yews share the churchyard. This is the one people come for, and it costs nothing to see.
The button above opens directions in your maps app. Rural North Wales; a car is the practical way to reach it. Llangernyw sits on the A548 in the Conwy valley, roughly 6 miles (15-20 min drive) from Abergele and its mainline rail station, and about 10 miles from Llanrwst. No regular public transport serves the village directly; the nearest useful railheads are Abergele & Pensarn or Colwyn Bay on the North Wales coast line.
- Species
- European Yew (Taxus baccata)
- Age estimate
- disputed: roughly 1,500 to 5,000 years
- Location
- St Digain's Church, Llangernyw, Conwy LL22 8PW, Wales (Llangernyw village)
- Access
- Free. Public churchyard, open access with no restriction (Woodland Trust Ancient Tree Inventory records it explicitly as 'Public - open access'). No fee, no gate, no booking.
- Getting there
- Rural North Wales; a car is the practical way to reach it. Llangernyw sits on the A548 in the Conwy valley, roughly 6 miles (15-20 min drive) from Abergele and its mainline rail station, and about 10 miles from Llanrwst. No regular public transport serves the village directly; the nearest useful railheads are Abergele & Pensarn or Colwyn Bay on the North Wales coast line.
Ticking this one off, walks past several more, and your collection growing city by city: that is the Ancient Trees app.
Get the appThis page was researched from a distance. If you know this tree, you know things we do not: the species, the age, the size, whether the photo shows the right tree, or that it is gone. Every field on this page can be corrected.
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