WHERE TO SEE ANCIENT OAKS

Blenheim Park, Oxfordshire The biggest concentration of ancient oaks – some 112 trees – grow in the park around the famous Blenheim Palace. blenheimpalace.com Borrowdale, Cumbria Oak-dominated temperate rainforest on precipitous slopes, renowned for its old forest mosses, liverworts and lichens, and red squirrels. Great Wood is the hotspot but open-grown pollards occur in the valley pastures. nationaltrust.org.uk/ borrowdale-and-derwent-water/features/ the-atlantic-oakwoods-of-borrowdale Calke Abbey, Derbyshire Ancient park with massive old oaks, including the ‘Old Man of Calke’, in harmony with a crumbling stately home. nationaltrust.org.uk/calke-abbey Chirk Castle Park, Wrexham Find the ‘Oak at the Gate of the Dead’ – thought to date to before 802AD – and old oak pollards in this ancient deer park, now managed by the National Trust. ancienttreeforum.co.uk Croft Castle & Ambrey, Herefordshire A 607-hectare park with giant oaks, extending through conifer woods on to Croft Ambrey hill fort. nationaltrust.org.uk/croft-castleand-parkland Crom Park, County Fermanagh Beside Lough Erne, this former deer park has the greatest concentration of oaks in Northern Ireland. nationaltrust.org.uk/crom Dalkeith Oakwood, Edinburgh This busy urban-fringe country park is home to ancient parkland oaks. inkzoo.files.wordpress. com/2018/02/site487-doc3.pdf Dinefwr Park, Carmarthenshire Beautiful veteran oaks in a medieval deer park. nationaltrust.org.uk/dinefwr Duncombe Park, North Yorkshire Historic estate with ancient pollarded oaks, now a National Nature Reserve. duncombepark.com