Dying after 800 years, an icon of natural history
IT has stood ever since the time of Robert the Bruce.
But now the oldest elm tree in Europe is dying.
Experts have revealed that the 800-yearold wych elm at Beauly Priory, near Inverness, has Dutch elm disease.
The highly destructive disease has blighted trees across the UK since it arrived in the 1960s.
Beauly Priory, which was built for monks of the Valliscaulian order, was established in the 1230s. Its wych elm is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland (HES), which has been working on documenting ancient Scottish trees.
As the last survivor of an avenue of elms, the wych elm has less than 5 per cent living material.
Sarah Franklin, landscape architect at HES, said: ‘The elm tree at Beauly Priory has been in rapid decline over the past five years due to Dutch elm disease, and it will be likely that in a few years there will be no further live material found on the branches or the main trunk.
‘The tree will then become a monolith in order to retain biodiversity at the site for as long as possible.
‘As the tree is hugely significant to the historic environment, our digital documentation team has carried out a laser scan, which is the first time we have scanned a tree. This helps us to record what we have at present, and turn it into a detailed 3D model which can be viewed digitally for years to come.’
Miss Franklin, who said the Beauly elm was ‘gnarly and gothic in appearance’, added: ‘We couldn’t find other elms older in Europe. There is one in Italy 760 years old, but none reaching 800 years old.
‘It looks like something out of a Hammer horror film.’
Medieval documents described the land that was granted to the monks at Beauly and mentioned the elm tree standing at the entrance to the graveyard as one of the markers.
Miss Franklin said of the tree: ‘It is older than the priory itself but we never gave it much thought of seeing the cultural significance in its own right.
‘We monitor historic buildings for decay but we don’t do it with trees.
‘This is our attempt to record the tree before we lose it so we have a visual record of what it looks like in situ.
‘It is going to be really sad when we lose it.’
Al Rawlinson, head of digital innovation at HES, led the project, which involved taking 1,800 photographs of the tree.
He said: ‘It gives us good information of how things are changing and the impact of climate change on our properties and sites.
‘It is a fantastic way to allow people to interact and look at sites and objects in different ways.’
He added: ‘It was very challenging because we wanted to get the detail of all the branches and limbs, and trees are quite susceptible to wind and movement.’