09-05-2025
How ‘best pals' felled Sycamore Gap tree then turned on each other
In the late 19th century, a landowner planted a sycamore tree in a gentle dip between two hillocks. John Clayton, a lawyer by trade, had bought up about 20 miles of Hadrian's Wall in an effort to prevent the destruction of what was once the frontier of the Roman Empire.
Over the following 150 years, the ruin would become a world heritage site under the protection of Northumberland national park, while the tree flourished by its side. It attained worldwide fame after featuring in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991, a celebrity cemented in the era of the smartphone thanks to its photogenic setting.
By September 2023 the sycamore's roots had grown deep in the public's imagination, yet it took only three
