Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’
IRISH YEW

At the geographic centre of Scotland lies the village of Fortingall in Glen Lyon, Perthshire. In a corner of the churchyard
there, is a Yew tree thought by many to be the oldest in Britain. We will never know the real age of this tree because, like all ancient Yews, the heartwood has decayed and disintegrated leaving no growth rings to measure. However, it is believed to be over 5000 years old. When the Fortingall tree was measured in 1769 it had a circumference of 52 ft (16 meters).

Not surprisingly, the Yew is the longest lived of all British native trees. To the pre-Christian Britons Yews were sacred and the Druids always erected temples or worshipped close-by a Yew. Due no doubt to their longevity they have always (aelwez?) been associated with immortality. The early Christians built their
churches on sites previously held sacred by the Britons and so perpetuated the association of Yews with sacred sites. Today the majority of churchyards throughout Briton contain Yews. However another theory for this is that because churchyards were always walled it kept the livestock from eating the poisonous leaves. Today several of those toxic chemicals have been found to be of enormous value in combating cervical and others cancers.

In Ireland in 1778 a farmer called Willis saw 2 female versions (each Yew is either male or female) of what is now the famous Irish Yew (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) growing in the wild near Florencecourt in County Farmanagh. They were moved to the Earl ofEnniskillen’s garden nearby and from them, by cuttings, are descended the millions of upright Yews all over the world. Including this one!

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Anyhow, I picked a berry and kept a seed for you because I consider you to be my elder. I can count the people who I consider my elders on one hand, severe asshole that am.