What is the oldest tree in Plunge?
Plunge's mapped trees are four state-protected veterans standing within a few hundred metres of each other in Plunge Manor Park (Perkunas Oak, Aukstasis Oak, the Mykolas Oginskis Linden and Laikrodine Oak), plus three further trees a short drive out of town: the Mingelos Oak, among Lithuania's thickest at 8.1 metres round; the Witch's Ash on the shore of Lake Plateliai; and the Oak of Laukiai, the first Lithuanian tree to win European Tree of the Year, in 2026.
The first four stand inside the 58.3-hectare public park surrounding the Oginskiai Palace, now home to the ticketed Samogitian Art Museum; the park grounds themselves are free with a numbered self-guided heritage trail. Perkunas Oak, protected since 1960, is the park's oldest documented tree and its name recalls the thunder god, tied to two legends about a lightning strike that scarred its trunk. The other three, all listed as protected together in 2016, were each measured more than once by disagreeing surveys, which is why this page states a range rather than a single figure for their height. None of the four has a recorded age beyond legend. Three further trees lie outside the park and outside walking distance, labelled honestly as day trips: the Mingelos Oak, 8km southwest of town, one of Lithuania's thickest oaks; the Witch's Ash, 13.6km away on the shore of Lake Plateliai, Lithuania's thickest ash, its trunk reading as four stems knotted into one; and the Oak of Laukiai, 18km away in Rukai village, planted more than 350 years ago by the Laukiai family and named European Tree of the Year in March 2026, the first Lithuanian win in the contest's history.
One of Plunge's trees also appears in The Autumn Harvest.