“The venerable oaks, spoken of by Leland [1536] are no more. Avarice, or dissipation, and its constant follower, poverty, have despoiled much of our principality of its leafy beauties. Among the numberless errors of this performance, I fear the word is IS cloathed with trees, must be supplied by the traveller with WAS. ”
Thomas Pennant – A Tour in Wales, 1778

Inspired by Thomas Pennant’s scathing observation about Dyffryn Peris in 1778, I’ve been asking people - and other beings! - what they think might be the oldest tree in the valley. What ‘venerable’ and ‘leafy beauties’ do we have now?

Derwen - Oak Ywen - Yew Bedwen - Birch Onnen - Ash Draenen Wen - Hawthorn Cerddinen - Rowan Gwern - Alder Celyn - Holly Collen - Hazel Ceiriosen - Cherry Masarnen - Sycamore Llarwydden - Larch Helygen - Willow Pinwydden - Pine ……………….

Crows add their nomination - an old sessile oak

The results so far - which you can see mapped here - are surprising! Not least the broad way that people think of Dyffryn Peris, running right down the valley from Pen y Pass through to Caernarfon, broadening the way I’ve been thinking about the scope of my Prosiect Dyffryn Peris Project.

Map of nominations so far (click on the image to see more)

But also surprising is just how old some of our trees are! Taking a broader geography of Dyffryn Peris means we take in some officially ancient yews at Llanddeiniolen. And these were Yews whose girths (27 foot!) were measured in 1769 by Thomas Pennant. As Gareth Roberts suggested in his nomination, these Yews (one 2000 years old, one 1900 years old, as measured by a Dendrochronologist) were there in when the romans walked past on their way from Segontium to Chester, perhaps even using the site as a temporary camp!…

“Dau Ywen yn Llanddeiniolen - un yn 2000 oed a llall yn 1900. Y ddau wedi cael arbrawf gan ‘Dendrochronologist’. Hynny yn golygu bod y ddau goeden yn 400-500 oed yn oes Deiniol Sant! Awgrym o’r awyr bod y Rhufeiniaid wedi defnyddio’r safle fel gwersyllt dros dro. Dim syndod gan bod safle eglwys Llanddeniolen o fewn 200 llath o’r Rufeinig o Segontiwm i Gaer. Felly roedd y ddwy goeden sydd yn mynwent Llanddeniolen yno pan roedd y Rhufeiniaid yn cerdded heibio nhw“
- Gareth Roberts

[By the by, Gareth will be leading a walk to Llanddeniolen Church, and revealing some surprising new discoveries on 31st January at 2pm. All welcome! Meet at Tafarn y Gors Bach car park.]

So these Yews are most likely the oldest trees. Although also in the running are some old willows near Cwm y Glo: Ted says:

“We’re going to attempt genetic testing of willows on my place [Y Fricsan] this year. Land not used for anything other than charcoal since the last ice age (I guess!). Have a hunch these willow’s genes go back longer than yews”

… and not to be put-off by this race to the very ancient (more on this below), we’ve had nominations for all sorts of oaks, ash, alder, beech, birch, hazel, hawthorn… I’m sure there are many more - please send in yours!

It’s not so much really which ARE the oldest (or the oldest of different types). But more about looking more closely, noticing the life stages of trees, how they’ve shaped and been shaped by all around. It has got me noticing just how ‘remnant’ are the trees in ‘my’ part of Dyffryn Peris: there are so few new ones. It got me learning how to age trees. It turns out that unless you have rings to count (probably not the most constructive way!), or a dendrochronologist to hand, it is pretty difficult.

But there are some rules of thumb… girth seems to be one of them… and the ‘look’ of the tree too…. a nice bit of rot, some other plants growing on it, branches lesser in relation to the trunk and so on….

But even ‘officially’, significance isn’t even just about age (or girth) - local significance counts. Some of which might be that a tree is particularly striking, or big, or connected with a person or event or just wonderfully sited. So trees are classified as notable, veteran, champion, heritage as well as ancient trees.

Of course, classifications are just a way of segmenting what we already know: the significance trees is up to all of us to decide! And the more personal, the better, in my mind. I was very struck by just how many people started to think of stories, and connections to the places in which the trees are found. Yews in Nant Peris churchyard linked to the grave of poet Elidirfab (great great grandfather of two nomination contributors), stories of the box and yews around the quarry hospital, perhaps assisting the healing of those inside… these trees are part of the cultural landscape as much as the physical one, a sort of worm-hole through time. Just as Gareth said about the ancient Yews at Llanddeiniolen.

And perhaps these connections, this continuity, also help us to think about the future too? I recently discovered a ‘notable’ copse of hazels, perhaps 40 or more trees, running up behind my house parallel with the road, continuing behind houses of 3 of my neighbours. Were these planted communally perhaps, by the quarry families that lived here? A handy source of food? Completely neglected now, ravaged by weather, age, sheep, squirrels and goats, no new ones are coming through. Perhaps we could restore them as a ‘forest garden’, so we don’t have to buy almonds from California?

With these things in mind, tomorrow I set out with Tim Albin to walk the whole Dyffryn Peris valley - o’r mynydd i’r môr - the source to the sea (Pen y Pass to Caernarfon). I particularly want to see if a nominated beech tree has been bulldozed by the caernarfon bipass, and a suggestion of old yew trees right up in the cliffs at the top of Dyffryn Peris. Our are sentinels still in place?

And to end on an international note, Shehzad Chowdry, one of the artists on the National Theatre Wales Climate Change residency last summer, is asking for nominations for the oldest trees in Dahka. The world is entirely made up of a series of local places. And that is empowering don’t you think? Our resistance to the world falling apart has to start from here, wherever here may be for you.

Some venerable Alders on Afon Las, together with the bodies of cut down ones, and the fences of replanted ones, the legacy of the hydro scheme built in 2016.

Postscript

My walk with Tim didn’t quite take us mountains to the sea (another time!) but around the quarry up to Dinorwig and Clwt-y-Bugail, down to Brynrefail, around the (crimson) Llyn Padarn and back to Nant Peris. Set out in the frost, after sun hit my house for the first time this year, and arriving home in the dark. Maybe 20 miles! So many gorgeous trees and things….