Historic England confirmed the tree's age following dendrochronological analysis of a slice cut from the felled trunk, indicating the tree was at least 100–120 years old when cut and likely older. The evidence suggests the tree appeared in the landscape in the late 19th century or earlier, consistent with belief that John Clayton planted it. The Sycamore Gap tree occupied a notable scenic spot on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland and served as a site for marriage proposals, celebrations and ash scatterings. Its illegal felling in September 2023 provoked widespread sadness and anger, and two men were jailed for the crime.
The Sycamore Gap tree stood at a beauty spot on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland that was the site of countless marriage proposals, birthday celebrations and scatterings of ashes. Its illegal felling prompted sadness and anger that rippled around the world. Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, the men who cut the tree down on a stormy September night in 2023, were each jailed for four years and three months.
Tom Frater, a regional director at Historic England, said there was a continuing fascination with the tree. I think people had a real sense of it being an old feature in the landscape but you don't know, you can't know just by looking at it when it's living, and the historical records give us clues but only so much. The operation to age the tree involved cutting a slice from the bottom end of the felled trunk.
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