Hunting for Veteran Trees at Bel’s Wood

I recently attended a visit to the Borrowdale Temperate Rainforest with Cumbria Woodlands. We walked through a wonderful landscape with many ancient trees including the Borrowdale Yews across the valley. These are the oldest identified trees in Cumbria at over 1000 years old.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/lake-district/countryside-woodland/celebration-of-trees-in-the-lake-district

We were introduced so some ancient Elm, Rowan and Ash trees.

A rare mature Wych Elm

Rowan growing on the side of the path holding onto the rock

Birch - this has been coppiced over 100 years ago (giving the distinctive flat broad part with branches emerging from that height). This would have provided wood for items likes plates and cutlery.

There are three or more trees growing out of a trunk from an older tree that has died. There is Holly, Birch and Rowan growing alongside each other here.

There is a website that records Ancient  & Veteran Trees https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

We learned about the importance of these ancient & veteran trees to wildlife and biodiversity and the need to treasure them. One example given is that beetles live on the dead wood in these ancient trees and they don’t travel far. So when a branch falls it is important to leave it in place for the beetles to continue to live and breed there. Also there were examples of rare plants that grow on ancient trees for example certain ferns and fungi are only found in Borrowdale which has the right conditions (heavy rainfall) and trees to create the damp and stable habitat.

This visit stimulated me to look again at the mature trees at Bel’s Wood.

I don’t believe that any of these are old enough to be called an Ancient Tree but one or two could be regarded as Veteran Trees. Basically an ancient tree is old and in the last phases of its life cycle; how old that is depends on the tree type. A veteran tree could be younger - all ancient trees are veterans but not all veterans are ancient trees. Its the features of the tree that would make it a veteran. It is showing the signs that come with age maybe due to trauma (storm damage) or some other stress. The reason they are considered valuable is that they provide the habitat similar to the more rare ancient trees and therefore support biodiversity.

The Woodland Trust states gives this description of a veteran tree:

A veteran tree will have some of the features found on an ancient tree, but won't have the great age. Although they're not as old as ancient trees, they're still incredibly important.

You might see signs of decay, fungal fruiting bodies or dead wood, these features may start to appear in the mature stage and also in traditional pollards.

Although veteran trees aren’t as old or complex as ancient trees, they still provide holes, cavities and crevices which are especially important for wildlife.

There is a lot more detail on the Woodland Trust website and they manage the Ancient Tree Inventory

https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/what-we-record-and-why/what-we-record/

The Ancient Tree Forum focuses on both ancient and veteran trees trying to prevent avoidable loss of these valuable trees. Sadly this work is usually only heard about when there are notable failures (The Sycamore Gap Tree 2023; Tobey Carvery Felled Oak 2025)

They have a useful guide on their website which shows how trees age and a table showing how long different species of trees live.

https://www.ancienttreeforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ancient-tree-guide-4-definitions.pdf

This aerial shot shows Bel’s Wood on the slope running right to left in the photograph down the hill. There is gorse and open areas that were previously grazed. At the right side there is a new woodland about 30 years old on a neighbours plot with well established trees and there is a good line of mature trees running top middle to left bottom which follows the road which runs parallel to the River Gilpin. On Bel’s Wood there are a few lovely older Oaks which are in leaf and you can see the dark crowns and then many Hawthorn showing their beautiful white blossom.

When walking round there are a some older trees:-

• Sessile Oaks
• Wild Cherry
• Goat Willow
• Downy & SIlver Birches
• Hazel
• Hawthorn

Willow.                                                                                                           Oak

Birch                                                                                          Hawthorn

Hazel                                                         Wild Cherry

A couple of these could be candidates for being defined as veteran trees but the one I am most confident of is the oldest oak and therefore likely to be the oldest tree at Bel’s Wood. It was one of the first trees to be named and is called Gandalf.

The tree has the distinctive ’stag horn’ branches which is associated with ancient oak trees but the trunk doesn’t appear to be wide enough to suggest that he is more than 300 years old. It is difficult to measure the trunk circumference as the tree is growing out of the rocks with roots showing above ground and side branches emerging at ground level. 

Gandalf is a big tree and hard to capture in stills. The crown is wide and creates a microclimate -cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

This is the crown in winter and can be compared to the Yew tree below and a younger Oak at 7 o’clock to Gandalf for comparison.

I looked more closely at the trunk and branches and found quite a few of the features needed to meet the definition a veteran tree:-

There is a spiders web across this crevice in the trunk

There are holes suitable for mammals or birds to live in

Dead branches still in the canopy with signs of beetles living there or drill holes from woodpeckers.

With peeled back bark on some branches that I believe could house bats and there are holly trees and other plants growing protected by the enormous crown of the oak.

A range of mosses and lichens thriving in the dark damp areas of the trunk

I have placed the camera in the lower branches on occasions and picked up some lovely footage

Jay collecting acorns and hopefully distributing the occasional one to propagate.

I would love to place the camera higher up in the canopy but with the holly tree and dead branches it is hard to reach up to place it. I am sure it is alive with mice, shrews, squirrels, bats and insects creating a unique ecosystem above and below ground. The size of the canopy and complexity of the tree structure means it must hold so many species of plants and animals and hopefully will continue to survive for many years. I have added over 4,000 saplings to the land and excluded grazers leading to natural regeneration of trees so that the land can recover. It will take many hundreds of years to establish a mature woodland made up of specimens as grand as Gandalf.