Charleville Forest Yew

Everyone comes to Charleville for the King Oak at the gate. Somewhere along the edge of the same woodland stands a yew 5.62 metres round, and almost nobody writes about it. The Tree Register of Ireland lists it as number 181 and describes it in one plain line, a large-girthed yew on the edge of an oak forest. In 2009 it was 12 metres tall. The tree recorder Aubrey Fennell had measured it at 5.59 metres a few years earlier, so in nearly a decade the trunk gained three centimetres, or the tape went round a slightly different line. The national heritage tree register saw it the same summer, recorded it as a multi-stemmed tree and put it at 300 to 500 years old. That band is the register's judgement, not a count, and nobody has narrowed it. The honest problem is finding it. Two published records place the tree about 1.7 kilometres apart, one near the King Oak end of the demesne and one deeper in, and the pin here follows the grid reference, which is the more careful of the two. Neither names a path or a landmark. The last dated record of the tree is from 2009. If you find it, a photograph and a location would put it properly on the map. Visit Offaly and local walkers say the forest is free to walk. Castle tours are separate and paid.