What is the oldest tree in Tullamore?
Tullamore's notable tree is the King Oak, on the Charleville Forest demesne just inside the estate's main gate, County Offaly. Estimates put it at 400 to 800 years old.
The King Oak's age has never been narrowed past that 400 to 800 year range, in the European Tree of the Year entry and in the published record alike. It was already worth writing down in the 17th century. Its trunk measures 8.29 metres round and it stands 19 metres tall, but the branches are the thing, spreading as far as 27 metres and now propped where they bow toward the ground, the shape left by centuries of pollarding for timber. Local superstition ties the family's fortunes to the tree: when a limb falls, someone in the owning family is said to die, and in 1963 a lightning strike split the trunk weeks before the estate's owner, Charles Howard-Bury, died. Thomas Pakenham included it in Meetings with Remarkable Trees, and in 2013 it placed third in Europe's Tree of the Year. It stands just inside the demesne's main entrance, free to walk into year round; the castle itself is a separate paid tour and is not needed to reach the tree.
One of Tullamore's trees also appears in The Oldest Tree in Every City We Map.