Sycamore Gap tree saplings to be planted across UK

Saplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including at a pit disaster site, a town still healing from the Troubles and a place which became an international symbol of peace, protest and feminism. The National Trust said planting of 49 saplings, known as “trees of hope”, would begin on Saturday. It is hoped that the sycamore will live on in a positive, inspirational way. The Sycamore Gap tree, on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, was one of the UK’s best-known and most loved trees. When it was criminally cut down for no apparent reason on a stormy night in September 2023 there was widespread anger. Hilary McGrady, director general of the National Trust, said it was “the quick thinking of our conservationists in the aftermath of the felling that has allowed the Sycamore Gap to live on”. Interactive Seeds from the tree were collected and have become 49 saplings, one to represent each foot in height of the tree, which was probably planted in the late 19th century. Nearly 500 applications were received for one of the saplings, which are now between four and six feet tall. The Trust said the first five saplings would be planted on Saturday, followed by many more in the days after, during National Tree Week. All will be in publicly accessible spaces. One of the saplings will be planted next to a military control tower at Greenham Common in Berkshire. As a base for US cruise missiles, in the 1980s the common became the site of women’s peace camps, which had a dramatic effect on public awareness of the dangers of storing the weapons there. At its height, more than 70,000 women were there and it became the biggest female-led protest since women’s suffrage. Today the tower is used as a community centre and museum. Helen Beard, of the Greener Greenham Common Group, called the sapling “a powerful way to spread a message hope – for nature, our environment and for peace”. “It will be seen by the many visitors using the control tower and we think they will be quite moved by it,” Beard said. Another sapling is being planted on Saturday in Strabane in County Tyrone. On the border to the Republic of Ireland, Strabane suffered heavily during the Troubles but is today a place with a vibrant arts and music scene where much has been done to foster a sense of resilience and hope. The tree is being planted as a symbol of the town’s “collective journey towards healing” and a tribute to John Gallagher, a beloved member of the Strabane community who died last year from motor neurone disease. Three other plantings will take place on Saturday: at a site commemorating the Minnie Pit mining disaster in Staffordshire, at the Tree Sanctuary in Coventry where three teenage friends helped set up a project to rescue their city’s trees, and at Coton Orchard in Cambridgeshire for a grassroots project called Coton Loves Pollinators. Related: Toby Carvery owner urged to fund ‘life support’ for felled Enfield oak The Coton tree will be planted by Sir Partha Dasgupta, a professor of economics at the University of Cambridge, who is considered one of the world’s leading thinkers on nature’s value to people and place. Later in the week, saplings will be planted at places including the Rob Burrow centre for motor neurone disease at Seacroft hospital in Leeds, at Hexham general hospital in Northumberland, and at a veterans’ charity, Veterans in Crisis, in Sunderland. Andrew Poad, general manager for the National Trust’s Hadrian’s Wall properties, said: “It’s incredible to think that this weekend, the first ‘offspring’ of this very famous tree will be planted. “Over the next couple of years, the saplings will really start to take shape, and because sycamores are so hardy, we’re confident they’ll be able to withstand a range of conditions.”