This tree - a pedonculate oak - is reputed to be 1000 years old: the circumference of the trunk is 9.65m and it is currently about 18m high although it would have been 2-3 times that in it's prime.
The tree has long been known as Chêne d’Eon after Eon de l’Etoile, a hermit who lived in this enclave of the Forêt de Brocéliande when the oak was a young sapling in the early part of the 12th C. The tree was renamed Chêne à Guillotin during the French Revolution when Pierre-Paul Guillotin (1750-1814), the pastor of Concoret, encouraged his parishioners to fight the revolutionaries.
Hunted like an animal by the revolutionaries, the good priest took refuge in the hollow trunk of the tree whose entrance was concealed by a spider web and thus escaped certain death. Local legend attributes the miracle to Our Lady of Paimpont who could have turned into a spider to protect him…
You'll find there's less distraction if you view this on black.
This image is SOOC and is part of my ongoing OCOLOY project - you can read more about it in my post for 1 January and in my profile.
I was amazed by the quality of your photos, but now, having really read your profile (sorry it took so long, but I'm not retired and in the middle of a really hectic period) and getting the sooc, I'm really amazed.
I'm intrigued by the bits and pieces that are keeping various parts of the tree in place, as well as by the wonderful stories. Thanks for sharing them.
What an amazing historian you make Richard, I love reading everything you relate with these magnificent photographs. The title paints quite a picture, 1000 yrs and still alive today, incredible. Thanx so much for sharing. This is a must fav!
The usual rough and ready method to estimate the age of a tree in England is to assume that it has added about an inch per year to its circumference. It won't be so different in France. So that makes it about 386 years old. Check it against the tree rings! :-)
@yrhenwr I had not heard that before David but it is definitely older than that, being mentioned in some of the oldest local documents that have been preserved. The tree is recorded as having a circumference of 8m in 1790. The French equivalent of the forestry commission, under whose care the tree is, give a 'birth date' of 1144, but that is widely disputed. I'll settle for it being jolly old!
Ian
Kev @snaggy