Ancient oak with murky past
Murray Cook tells the story of Stirlingshire’s oldest tree
If you’ve driven into or from Balfron you will have passed what at first glance appears to be a scabby oak tree, held together by iron bands. The next time you go that way stop and get out and have a look at what might Stirlingshire’s oldest tree, the Clachan Oak.
The tree looks a bit sorry for itself as it is beginning to‘stag’, which is when the upper crown begins to die and the tree retreats into itself to create a lower crown. However, it is very much alive.
‘Clachan’is the medieval term for hamlet or village and Balfron Clachan is the oldest part of Balfron, which is also why the church is there. The tree is probably between 400 and 500 years old, so was here when our James VI became James I of England. It was probably a sapling when George Buchanan, our greatest medieval Latin poet, who tutored Mary, Queen of Scots, first travelled to Stirling from his home in Killearn, along the same road. It was there when Cromwell’s troops captured Stirling Castle and when Bonnie Prince Charlie’s troops failed to. It was seen by one of our greatest architects, Balfron’s very own Alexander‘Greek’ Thompson (all the benches in Balfron echo his designs) and thousands and thousands of other people over its long life.
The iron bands however, tell a grimmer tale. They were not designed to hold the tree together and in fact have probably damaged it. They are part of jougs and were once commonplace across Scotland. They were designed to secure local miscreants to the tree via a metal collar, so that they could be subject to public ridicule.
The practice apparently ended in the late 18th century after a woman who was forgotten, tripped and was strangled to death.