Sycamore Gap tree’s legacy to live on with saplings to be planted across UK

The venture to plant saplings in publicly accessible places across the UK comes after a ‘rollercoaster’ of a year since the tree was chopped down

Its destruction triggered outcry and sadness across the nation – but now, 12 months on from the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree, saplings of the treasure are to be planted across the UK.

Custodians of the much-photographed and visited sycamore say they hope the venture, which comes exactly a year after the tree was chopped down, will create a new chapter of hope in its legacy.

The Trees of Hope project will see a total of 49 saplings, each representing a foot of the height of the tree, gifted to communities across the country for planting in publicly accessible spaces.

Groups are being invited to apply for the saplings by The National Trust and Northumberland national park.

It provides a new era for the Sycamore Gap tree, which long featured above Hadrian’s Wall in the national park before it was illegally felled on the night of 27 September last year.

It’s a year since the Sycamore Gap tree was illegally chopped down (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

The Sycamore Gap tree was planted as a landscape feature in a dell on Hadrian’s Wall 150 years ago (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

Early reports at the time suggested it had been hit by a storm, but it quickly emerged that the iconic tree had been chopped down.

Two men charged with the criminal damage of the tree will face trial in December. They have denied the charges.

Andrew Poad, general manager for the National Trust’s Hadrian’s Wall properties, said: “The last 12 months have been a real rollercoaster of emotions, from the hopelessness and grief we felt when we discovered that the tree had been illegally felled, to experiencing the stories shared with us about just what the tree meant to so many.”

Mr Poad said saplings had been created from the some of the seeds collected from the stricken tree. They were looked after at the Trust’s Plant Conservation Centre in Devon where a team has worked to successfully propagate more than 100 seedlings.

Seeds were picked up from the stricken tree to create saplings which will be given out across the UK (James Dobson/National Trust Images/PA Wire)

The stump of the Sycamore Gap tree today (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

He said: “In announcing our Trees of Hope initiative today, we aim to find new homes in community settings across the UK so people can have the opportunity to engage with the Sycamore Gap tree and its legacy so that more people everywhere can feel that they are part of this story – that they are a part of this tree’s wonderful legacy, helping to create a new chapter in the life of this legendary tree.”

Already selected to receive saplings as part of the initiative are Henshaw Church of England Primary School, which is the school closest to the Sycamore Gap, and all 15 UK national parks.

An exhibition - Sycamore Gap: One Year On - is also being officially opened at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre in Hexham on Friday, when 240 children from 13 local schools will take part in a celebration of the tree’s life ahead of the public being allowed in on Saturday.

The Sycamore Gap tree is thought to have been planted by Newcastle philanthropist and lawyer John Clayton in the second half of the 19th century.

Over the years, its popularity has seen countless marriage proposals, birthday celebrations and scatterings of ashes, and it even appeared in the Hollywood film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.