Fir in Wales is now joint tallest tree in UK & Northern Europe!
Back in February at Blair Castle, Perthshire, I met a team of climbers comprising of tree surgeons and lecturers from Sparsholt College, Hampshire. They were climbing and measuring the tallest trees in Scotland and had discovered that the Stronardron Douglas Fir near Dunans Castle is officially the tallest tree in the UK at 63.79m.
When I heard this result, my thoughts immediately turned to the Douglas Fir at Lake Vyrnwy, the largest lake in Wales. I knew that a local company called Tree Dimension had measured it back in 2005 using a rope dangling from the top, which was measured when back on the ground. I realised that this would give an underestimation of the height as the rope would be stretching under its own weight. In addition, the tree may have grown in the 4 years since they measured it.
Adding these factors together, I felt that the Lake Vyrnwy tree could be up to a metre taller than 62.5m, and could therefore be at least the 2nd tallest in the UK. I knew that the only way to confirm whether this tree could challenge the tallest tree in the UK would be to actually climb this tree and measure it properly. And that's just what we did.
Last weekend (May 9th-10th) my climbing partner, Dave Hunt and I drove to Lake Vyrnwy. At dawn on Sunday we installed a rope over a branch 110ft up. I ascended this rope and then weaved my way delicately through the branches, the huge mast becoming ever thinner, until I was as close to the top as I could safely stand. The 80ft deciduous trees by the stream looked like small shrubs far below my perch at 200ft up and I could easily see over the tops of the giant Douglas firs we had seen by the road to the still surface of a windless Lake Vyrnwy.
To my surprise I found a plastic Fanta bottle I found tied to a branch about 5m from the top. The bottle contained a piece of paper with the names of 3 people who apparently had also climbed this tree on March 9th 2007.
Using a thin fold-up pole, I measured from the tip of the tree to a point 5.50m from the top and put a small pin in the stem as a marker. I then lowered a weight suspended from a 60m tape measure to Dave who was waiting at 130ft to guide the tape down in case it got snagged. He then descended with the end of the tape to the ground.
As the unwinding tape passed 56m then 57m I realised that the tree was already going to be taller than 62.5m. Dave came on the radio, saying \"stop\" when the tape was reading 57.645m at the top marker. He then confirmed that the tape still had not reached the ground: the bottom marker (at 1.00m from the ground) was at 0.355m on the tape, giving the height between the two markers as 57.29m.
Adding the three measurements together (5.50m + 57.29m + 1.00m) I couldn't believe the result: 63.79m!!! EXACTLY the same as the height that the Sparsholt team had measured the Stronardron Fir to be! My first thought was \"They're going to think I'm making this up!\" but that was the result. If I'd wanted to make it up I would have made my result taller wouldn't I?
I informed David Alderman at the Tree Register of the British Isles (TROBI), who keeps records of champion trees in the British Isles. He confirmed that the two trees will be officially listed as joint champions, with the Scottish fir at Stronardron on top due to its greater volume of wood.
So there it is: We have two trees, one in Wales, the other in Scotland, at exactly the same height to the centimetre. These are the joint tallest living things in the UK and therefore in Northern Europe!
I forgot to take photos while climbing but I did take some photos from the top, which I will send in a following post.
Michael.[/color]
