Lochaber’s Skipinnish Oak wins UK Tree of the Year

A tree in the Scottish Highlands regarded as not less than 1,000 years previous and often called the Skipinnish Oak has been named UK Tree of the Year.

Native woodland consultants had no thought the tree existed till a gathering in 2009.

The band Skipinnish, which had performed at the occasion, knew of the tree and led the conservationists to the place it was hidden in a non-native Sitka spruce plantation on Achnacarry Estate.

It has received a public vote in opposition to 11 different contenders in the Woodland Trust competitors.

The winner was introduced on BBC TV’s The One Show.

Runner-up was the Darwin Oak in Shrewsbury and in third place the 1,000-year-old Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire.

Skipinnish, which performs conventional and up to date Scottish music, is composing a brand new track in honour of the winner.

The tune is to be carried out for the first time at a gig in Glasgow subsequent yr.

Band member Andrew Stevenson grew up in Lochaber and knew about the historic oak tree.

The piper mentioned: “I am delighted that the Skipinnish Oak has won Tree of the Year.

“The tree has held a particular place in my coronary heart since my father first described it to me, and the first time I noticed it a few years in the past.”

George Anderson, of Woodland Trust Scotland, said: “It is the tree that point forgot however the piper remembered.”