Lochaber’s Skipinnish Oak wins UK Tree of the Year

A tree in the Scottish Highlands thought to be at least 1,000 years old and known as the Skipinnish Oak has been named UK Tree of the Year.

Native woodland experts had no idea the tree existed until a gathering in 2009.

The band Skipinnish, which had played at the event, knew of the tree and led the conservationists to where it was hidden in a non-native Sitka spruce plantation on Achnacarry Estate.

It has won a public vote against 11 other contenders in the Woodland Trust competition.

The winner was announced on BBC TV’s The One Show.

Runner-up was the Darwin Oak in Shrewsbury and in third place the 1,000-year-old Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire.

Skipinnish, which plays traditional and contemporary Scottish music, is composing a new song in honour of the winner.

The tune is to be performed for the first time at a gig in Glasgow next year.

Band member Andrew Stevenson grew up in Lochaber and knew about the ancient oak tree.

The piper said: “I am delighted that the Skipinnish Oak has won Tree of the Year.

“The tree has held a special place in my heart since my father first described it to me, and the first time I saw it many years ago.”

George Anderson, of Woodland Trust Scotland, said: “It is the tree that time forgot but the piper remembered.”