Springwatch highlights Northern Ireland’s oldest trees at Crom Castle

Springwatch is continuing to broadcast from Crom Castle – and highlighted the oldest trees in Northern Ireland this week.

The iconic BBC show has been broadcasting from Fermanagh beauty spot over the last couple of weeks and it has been a hit.

On Tuesday night’s show, presenters Michaela Strachan and Chris Peckham took the viewers on a visit to a pair of Yew Trees that have been on the site for at least 400 years, and potentially up to 1000 years.

The conjoined trees have grown to take up an area of land with a circumference of 150 metres.

Those Yew Trees are relatively young compared to others, with the oldest being in Perthshire in Scotland and being at least 3000 years old.

As the presenters walk into the area where the trees are, Michaela explains: “All of this foliage belongs to a pair of Yew Trees, they are conjoined. Yew Trees are dioecious which means there is a male and female.

Michael Strachan and Chris Peckham beside the Yew Trees (Image: BBC)

“The male produces the flower and pollen and this absolutely beautiful tree is the female and the seeds will be pollinated by the pollen from the male tree.

“They cover a circumference of 150 metres. We don’t know how old they are but they think they are between 400 and 1000 years old and they were here when the castle was built, so definitely here in 1611 but they could have been here long before that.

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“In Yew Trees terms this is quite young but they are the oldest trees in Northern Ireland but it is young. If you look at the oldest in the UK, it is a Yew Tree in Perthshire and is 3000 to 7000 years old.

The trees are at least 400 years old (Image: BBC)

“If these trees could speak, think of the stories they could tell.”

They are not the only trees highlighted in the episode, with Crom’s Oak trees, which are the largest remaining body of them in Northern Ireland.

Speaking about them, Chris explained: “Crom holds the largest remaining body of Oakwood in Northern Ireland.

“They are nowhere near as old as these Yews, they can live up to 1000 years and they become ancient trees at 400 but as they progress they change their form and there is a lot of splits, they become great surfaces for life and as they are a species which have been growing here for a long time, studies have shown no less than 2300 species can be surviving on an oak.”