What is the oldest tree in Llangernyw?
Llangernyw's only mapped tree, and its oldest, is the Llangernyw Yew, a European Yew (Taxus baccata) in the churchyard of St Digain's Church in the village of Llangernyw, Conwy, North Wales. Its age is disputed: the widely repeated figure is 4,000 to 5,000 years, but the Woodland Trust itself offers a more conservative estimate of roughly 1,500 years, about as old as the church it stands beside.
The girth from the Woodland Trust's most recent survey is 10.90 metres, taken low on a trunk that split long ago into several large stems; Wikipedia's own figure (10.75m) and an older 1998 record (10.36m) reflect the same irregular trunk measured on different occasions, not a real disagreement. The Tree Council named it one of Fifty Great British Trees for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in June 2002, and a certificate to that effect still hangs at the churchyard gate; that same certificate is the source of the popular 4,000 to 5,000 year figure, credited to the botanist David Bellamy. Local folklore holds that a spirit called the Angelystor speaks from the tree every 31 October to name the parishioners who will die in the year ahead. The churchyard holds eight other, younger yews; this is the one people come to see. It is rural North Wales: a car is the practical way to arrive, roughly 15 to 20 minutes' drive from Abergele on the North Wales coast line, with no direct public transport to the village.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.