The Martindale Yew
Martindale, Ullswater valley
Estimates of this yew's age run from 700 years to 2,000, and the Ancient Yew Group, which keeps the record, simply lists both ends. It leans towards the lower end, because the tree is really two trunks, joined only for the first few feet. The Church of England's heritage record repeats a figure of about 1,300 years. Nobody has a method that settles it. What stands in the churchyard of old St Martin's is easier to describe. A female yew, its two trunks measured together at 5.92 metres round in 2002. One is a hollow shell with a thickened rim; the other, nearer the church, is covered in twiggy growth. A branch about six feet up dips all the way to the ground, and the crown hangs over a building beside it. The church site is documented from 1220. The local story says the yew supplied longbows for Agincourt, which the National Churches Trust calls probable but not proven. The first time it appears in print is 1839, when William Ford called it a picturesque yew-tree, and the yew group now calls this one of the finest churchyard yew settings in England. A 2018 survey found the crown in normal health, with some dead branches on the south side. The church sits at the end of the Martindale road, well away from any town. That remoteness is most of its charm.
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Getting there
Old St Martin's Church, Martindale, Penrith, Cumbria CA10 2NG (churchyard, NE of the church)
You can recognise it by its two trunks joined at the base, one a hollow shell, and a low branch that dips to the ground. It stands north-east of old St Martin's Church, Martindale.
No bus. Take the Ullswater Steamers boat to Howtown pier, then walk about 2.5 km up the valley road; check sailings, which are reduced in winter. By car, about 15 minutes from Pooley Bridge.
In fruit
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.