It’s a YES. Argyll has the tallest tree in the UK – see it from Dunans Castle in Glendaruel

For Argyll reported a few days ago on the Scotland-wide measuring of candidates for the title of Britain’s Tallest Tree. A specialist team from Sparsholt College in Hampshire toured the various candidates, assessing, climbing and measuring.

The results came in this evening and it’s very good news for Glendaruel. It has been officially confirmed that the Stronardron Douglas Fir, planted by Archie Fletcher of Dunans Castle in 1849, now owned by Mr Robin Creelman and viewable only from Dunans Castle – which is open to the public – is the new champion tree.

All the measurements were taken from the tip of the tree to the highest point of the base, except for the Inverness Douglas Fir which came from  from an average of nine valid ground based measurements. The final league table of measured candidates was:

• 63.79m Stronardron Douglas Fir, Glendaruel, Argyll
• 62.70m Diana’s Grove Grand Fir, Blair Castle, Perth
• 62.02m Dughall Mor Douglas Fir, Inverness, Inverness
• 61.31m Hermitage Douglas Fir, Dunkeld, Perth

These official results confirm that Scotland has the two tallest trees in the UK, the Stronardron Douglas Fir in Glendaruel, the new champion; and the Diana’s Grove Grand Fir at Blair castle, the second tallest.

Visiting champion trees is a much like hill walkers fascination with Munro-bagging. Those wanting to see the new champion at home in Argyll are advised that the only place from which it can be seen is from Dunans Castle which is open to the public.

Read the full details of the measurement adventure at the Dunans Heritage Project website.

The copyright to all of  the photographs accompanying this article – which record aspects of the official measuring process – is held by LW Images and they are reproduced here with permission.