Mikalojaus Daukša Oak, Betygala

The man this oak is named for helped give Lithuanian a written form, and he was the parish priest 300 metres up the slope. Mikalojus Daukša, priest and translator, held Betygala from 1592 to 1609, and local tradition has him sitting out by this oak. Whether he planted it himself or somebody else planted it in his honour is, as the Lithuanian account of it says, hard to tell today. Nobody claims to know, and the tree carries his name for the association rather than for a documented act. The estimated age is about 300 to 350 years, given that loosely by the sources and left that loose here. Two sets of measurements exist and they disagree a little, so both stand. The Lithuanian entry gives 28.5 metres of height and 4.90 metres of girth. The State Forest Service surveyed it in 2017 and recorded 28 metres and 4.7, in good condition, with a few old cut branches at three metres whose wounds have healed over. Betygala carries the oak on its coat of arms, which is the town's own verdict on the tradition. Getting to Betygala means a car, by road 148 out of Raseiniai. From the centre it is a signposted 300 metre walk: a direction sign, an information board, and purpose-built stairs down the slope to the tree above the Vieviršė stream, inside Dubysa Regional Park. Plauginiai Forest's own oak is 19 to 20 kilometres off, a second stop rather than a continuation.