'The tree that ate the church' and other stone hungry Irish trees

Around this time every year I try and do a special tree themed blog post especially for National Tree Week which this year runs from 2nd March to 8th March.

Reading through this wonderful new book by Aubrey Fennell about the Heritage Trees of Ireland I got inspired to do a blog post on some of the stone hungry trees of Ireland.

This book is full of wonderful photos, stories and information and I thoroughly recommend getting a copy. Below are two stories from the book that I have been permitted by the publishers to share with you. They are the story of The Tree That Ate the Church in Co. Offaly and the story of Castle One Tree in Co. Cavan written in the words of the author.

Heritage Trees of Ireland By Aubrey Fennell. Click here to buy with free worldwide shipping

I have always been fascinated by the folklore surrounding many of Ireland's trees. Many of these trees are also often closely tied to stone I find. Unfortunately though the same trees are also often the slow killers of the same stone structures as was the case below.

The Tree that Ate the Church. Co. Offaly. (Photo from Heritage Trees of Ireland book with the publishers kind permission)

The Tree That Ate the Church, Tihilly Church, Laughaun, Coleraine, County Offaly  

"I have been as guilty as anyone in rushing through the countryside on our improved road network, and not seeing some of the wonders of our beautiful island. The road between Tullamore and Clara was one I had often travelled, when a beam of sunshine illuminated a pair of ash trees I had not noticed before. They are two fields in, behind a farmyard, and after getting permission from the farmer I approached them with growing anticipation.

Surface roots of the first ash seemed ready to grab my ankles and pull me into if gaping cavity. The gargantuan tree did not look benign and, if I did not know better, appeared to be ‘Old Man Willow’ exiled from Tolkien’s Middle-earth. 

It stands on a mound of stones which are the remains of Tihilly church. Moss-covered stones and bark merge to create a trunk 7.6m in girth, a new Irish champion at the turn of the millennium. Since then its

cavity has become a cave, which has shrunk its girth to 7.18m. It supports a respectable storm-damaged crown, and at over 300 years old, is living on borrowed time. It probably started life as an opportunist seedling on the walls of the church, when it was abandoned in medieval times. Two walls remain standing beyond its grasping roots.

The second ash stands proudly clear of all this carnage, and is in the prime of life, ready to guard this religious site when the old brute is gone. It shelters a standing High Cross made from sandstone, which depicts scenes from the Bible, along with geometric and animal interlacing. St Fintan founded a monastery here in the seventh century. The last abbot served here in 936, while the church we see now was built from the stones of previous churches.

Ash trees have a special place in Irish folklore, and massive old trees have been venerated down through the ages. After the hawthorn, it is the tree most likely to be found at holy wells and sites of special significance.

Here we have a tree to rival those of the past and I hope to revisit it before it returns to Middle-earth."

Castle One Tree. Bawnboy, County Cavan

Castle One Tree
(Photo from Heritage Trees of Ireland book with the publishers kind permission)

Castle One Tree
(Photo from Heritage Trees of Ireland book
with the publishers kind permission)

‘Castle One Tree’ is a recently coined name given to an incredible old ash tree which is gorging on what remains of Lissanover Castle between Bawnboy and Templeport. Lissanover translates from Irish as the ‘Fort of Pride’, and the story goes that one of its occupants had a priest murdered at the altar because he had started Mass without him. In medieval times the castle was a stronghold of the ruling McGovern clan, and commanded views of the Barony of Templeport from Fermanagh to the Shannon basin as it fed into Lough Allen. 

Another account translates Lissanover as ‘Fort of Extravagance’; in this version a Baron McGovern was building the castle and had his tenants drive their cows to be milked at the castle every day, and the produce was used instead of water to make the mortar. BuIlocks’ blood was also used, and if anyone refused, the Baron had them hanged.

The McGoverns’ despotic rule did not survive the Elizabethan plantation, and the castle stone was recycled into the construction of Lissanover House in the 18th century. 

By the early 20th century, the mansion had suffered the same fate as the castle, and its stone was reused in the building of local farmers’ homes after the estate was divided up by the Land Commission.

Permission to view the tree from Martin Donohoe on whose land the tree stands is essential, as the grazing bullocks may have an ancestral memory of what happened to their forebears. Climb the hill until it levels off, and only bumps and hollows remain of the fort, except for the stout ash on its pedestal of stone. The trunk is over 7m in girth although it is not a conventional trunk, as many roots drop down from the original height of the wall where the ash seeded itself some 300 years ago. The tree’s height and spread is over 18m, and it is obviously thriving on its diet of blood and milk. It is clear why this tree was left well alone, for who knows what malevolent spirit might be released if it is interfered with? The McGoverns had the habit of imprisoning their opponents in wooden barrels with nails driven in and rolling them down the hill from this castle.

Below are two other trees that are stone bound which I have long admired. The first is an old crab apple growing out of a sold rock (an old mass rock I believe) close to my family home in West Cork.

Crab Apple tree, Mealagh Valley, West Cork. (Rock not very visible from this angle as grass has creped up over the rock on this side.) 

 The tree below is a lovely old Hawthorn growing through the wall at the 12th century St Doulagh's Well, in the outskirts of Dublin city. I love how the wall around the Hawthorn tree has carefully been maintained and repaired over the years to allow the tree to grow freely through the wall. It was actually visiting this site that  inspired me to incorporate the Hawthorn 'fairy tree' into the outdoor classroom project I created for the school in Donabate.

Hawthorn growing through the wall at the 12th century St Doulagh's Well

Planting the fairy tree in the outdoor classroom. 

The Fairy Tree in place

In regards to other Stone Hungry Trees, I also like this photo by Ken Curran of vines consuming a dry stone wall in Co. Tipparary

Vines consuming a dry stone wall in Co. Tipperary (Photo by Ken Curran of Earthstone)

Grave Yards are also great places to see stone eating trees.

Stone Hungry trees in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin

If you want to see some funny hungry trees from around the world, you should check out this link http://hungrytrees.com/

You can see my previous posts for National Tree Week here.

There are plenty of events on around the country this week for National Tree Week. To find out what is happening in your area or to advertise your own event, check out the Tree Council of Ireland website http://www.treecouncil.ie/initiatives/treeweek2014.html

Thanks again to Collins Press  for allowing me to share the stories from their book. The Book Depository has the wonderful  Heritage Trees of Ireland book on sale at the moment with 39% off plus free worldwide shipping so click here to get yourself a copy 

Blackthorn, Shillelaghs and the tree of the fairies, the Hawthorn

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) Draigean (Gaelic name)

Anyone driving on any country roads in Ireland at the moment will have noticed the beautiful white flowers of the Blackthorn, which has exploded onto the stage over the past few weeks.

This native Irish tree may be known by its Latin name Prunus spinosa or one of its many common names, such as sloe, wild plum, wishing thorn or mother of the wood. A close relative of cherries and plums, Blackthorn is a deciduous small tree or large shrub, growing up to 4 metres high at a medium growth rate. It is often found growing wild in hedgerows, on the edges of wooded areas or popping up on rough farmland.

The Blackthorn gets its name from its black bark, this bark is sometimes used to make an ink.

The five petalled, snow white flowers of the Blackthorn are at their best from March through April. The blooms appear before the leaves unfold (this is one of the easiest ways to tell the difference between Blackthorn and Hawthorn)

It's flowers before leaves for Blackthorn and leaves before flowers for Hawthorn.

The early Blackthorn flowers are followed by the finely serrated, dull-green oval leaves, which in turn are followed by blackish purple sloes in autumn. Sloes, the fruit of the Blackthorn, are extremely sour and are sometimes used for flavouring sloe gin.

The thicket like growth combined with Blackthorns notoriously vicious woody thorns, and the ability to re-grow quickly after cutting makes for an ideal stock proof new hedging material or as a replacement plant for existing hedgerow gaps.

Blackthorn is very valuable to birds as a nesting site. Blackbird, song thrush, finches, common whitethroat and wood pigeon are among the more common users.

The wood of the Blackthorn is both hard and light weight, this makes it is ideally suited to the manufacture of clubs/walking sticks. These sticks are known as ‘Shillelaghs’ and are better known as part of the Irish cliché ‘shamrocks and shillelaghs’

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) Sceach Gheal

Just as the flowers of the Blackthorn begins to fade the Hawthorn explodes into flower, matching the floral show of the Blackthorn in colour and intensity.

The Hawthorn, or by its Latin name Crataegus monogyna, also known as Quickthorn, Whitethorn, or the May tree, is one of the most common small trees/large shrubs grown in Ireland. It is sometimes grown as individual trees, but it is more common to see it grown in a closely planted row as a hedge or screen. It is the ideal candidate for this, as young hawthorn plants grow strongly with many thorny branches and side-shoots. This quickly forms a thicket, which makes for a virtually stock-proof hedge.

A bushy tree, Hawthorn grows on average, to a height and spread of 6 metres.
Unlike Blackthorn whose stems are dark, the stems of Hawthorn are light grey turning to a pinkish brown colour with age, which is also when characteristic filled cracks start to appear up along the trunk. Most of the young twigs sprouting from the tree emerge red before going through these colour changes.
The glossy green leaves are between 20 to 30mm long and are divided into 3, 5 or 7 deeply cut lobes. The tree comes into leaf at the end March.

It is in flower from May to June with 5-petalled white flowers, which unfortunately have an unpleasant smell to some. You see, up close the flowers have a faint scent of rotting meat. This allows pollination of the flowers by flies rather than bees which are not active in early spring, its blooming time.

By September lots of red berries appear, these berries are known as ‘haws’. Birds will feed on these through the winter and so can we, although they don’t really taste of very much. They are dominated by a stone, which must not be cracked when eating the flesh of the berry, but they can be roasted and ground into a coffee substitute. The stone is often made up of several segments which tend to fuse together to appear as one. The berries are mostly used to make jams, and fruit leathers.

Our native tree of the fairies

In Irish myths and legends, there are many references to Hawthorn or Whitethorn and its connection with the fairy folk. It was once believed that to place a sprig of fairy Hawthorn in your milking parlour would cause your cows to supply extra pints of creamier milk.

It is also said that fairies who gather around a thorn tree are thought to be earth spirits and as a precaution no evil thing is ever said of them for fear of retribution. The old belief that any damage done to their trysting tree will bring misfortune to the doer has not died out and farmers still laboriously cultivate around them. In several instances it has been impossible to persuade workmen to remove a thorn tree from the route of a new road or footpath (as the picture below of a Hawthorn from somewhere in rural Ireland clearly shows), and there is widespread belief that to cut a thorn would bring ill luck on the person 'injuring' the tree and possibly death.*

Another use of the Hawthorn in Irish myths and legends is a Hawthorn known as St Ciaran's Bush. Ciaran was a fifth century saint who founded a monastery here.

Located at Clareen, east of Birr in the midlands of the country, the lonely Whitethorn is dressed in clothing rags (giving it its more impertinent name, the rag bush). It is believed that the bush cures illness and answers prayers, so when a piece of the persons clothing is placed on the bush, once the rag has rotted to nothing, their prayers and intentions will be answered. (It is also believed by some that the increase in the bush's use over the last few years is a reflection of the state of medical services in Ireland)

The tree does not appear to be particularly old, but it has been confirmed that the same bush has been decorated for at least 40 years. It is likely that the present tree replaced an older one.
The local people helped to preserve the tree when it was in danger of being felled due to the realignment of the road some years ago. It now stands on an island of grass, surrounded by low white railings, the old road on the west side, and the new road on the east.*

An old Hawthorn tree left grow through the wall at St Doulagh's holy Well,  in the outskirts of Dublin city.  I love how the wall around the Hawthorn tree as carefully been maintained and repaired over the years to allow the tree to grow freely through the wall.  

* References  [Tree Heritage or Britain and Ireland by Andrew Morton]