The six most beautiful lonely trees in Britain
The untimely and shocking felling of the Sycamore Gap tree prompted a national outpouring of grief. Here, we salute the proud and lonely sentinels of Britain.


The the Lone Tree of Llyn Padarn
Beautiful in isolation, roots awash and trunk bent, the Lone Tree of Llyn Padarn, Llanberis, North Wales, clings to its promontory. A magnet for photographers, the birch in its unlikely spot seems placed by some great artist to draw the eye to the distant hills.
The hawthorns of Conistone Dib
Defiant in the teeth of the endless winds, valiant hawthorns rise incongruously from limestone pavement above the glacial gorge Conistone Dib in the Yorkshire Dales.
The pine tree at Bratley View
Might a visitor glimpse the ghost of William the Conqueror in the distance, galloping along the sandy tracks in pursuit of deer and wild boar? The Norman king who created Britain’s oldest royal hunting ground would surely recognise Bratley View in the New Forest.
The tree that dips its toes into Loch Lomond
Was it a greedy jay trying to carry too many acorns that dropped one at the edge of Loch Lomond? The places trees choose to put down roots, as here on Milarrochy Bay, despite rocks and thin earth, defy imagination.
The mighty trees that farmers couldn't bear to fell
Symphony in gold and green: a noble Oxfordshire oak tree, neatly encircled by a thoughtful farmer’s tractor wheels, stands in a sea of oil-seed rape, giving a home to birds and insects and relief to the human eye.
Gone but not forgotten: The tree at Sycamore Gap
Solitary splendour lost to a senseless crime: Sycamore Gap, Northumberland, as it once was, the great tree standing out dark against the glitter of the Milky Way.
Jason Goodwin: How to fill the Sycamore Gap
Our columnist on how some good might come out of the felling of the sycamore in the gap.
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