876 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



70 feet by 15 feet 8 inches in 1881. Sir Archibald Buchan-Hepburn reports a tree 

 at Smeaton- Hepburn 124 feet by 11 feet in 1908. 



But these are much exceeded in height by a tree west of the Beech Walk 

 at Mountstuart in the island of Bute, which James Kay 1 states to have been 

 in 1879 no less than 134 feet high by 9 feet 4 inches, with a bole of 35 feet 



6 inches, and if this measurement was correct it must have been the tallest 

 hardwood tree in Scotland. It was estimated to contain 273 feet of timber. I 

 could not, however, identify this tree when I visited Mountstuart in 1906, and fear 

 that, like some of the splendid beech trees which grew there, it has fallen. 



At Ochtertyre, Perthshire, Hunter 2 records an ash supposed to be about 400 

 years old, which measured in 1881 34 feet 10 inches at 1 foot and 20 feet 8 

 inches at 5 feet, and I am informed by the widow of the late gardener, Mr. 

 Conacher, that the tree still remains in very good condition. At Keir, near the 

 Bridge of Allan, there is a remarkable ash stool, from which four stems proceed, 

 averaging 6 feet 4 inches in girth and 103 feet in height. A tape 16 feet 10 

 inches long, girths the four stems at 5 feet from the ground. At Dupplin Castle I 

 measured a fine tree about 100 feet high with a stem clean to 45 feet and 10 feet 7 

 inches in girth. At Dalswinton, Dumfriesshire, Henry measured in 1904, a tree no 

 feet by 8 feet 3 inches, with a fine clean stem ; and another 93 feet by 1 3 feet 3 inches. 



Near Cawdor Castle, Nairnshire, the property of the Earl of Cawdor, and one 

 of the most beautifully situated of the really old inhabited castles in Scotland, there 

 is a very large, though branchy and ill-shaped ash no less than 2 1 feet in girth. 

 At Brodie Castle, Morayshire, there is a very large tree, 18 feet 8 inches in girth, of 

 which the owner has kindly sent me a photograph ; and at Darnaway, in the same 

 county, an immense tree of great age, much damaged by storms, existed in 1881. 

 Even as far north as Conon House, Ross-shire, the seat of Sir Kenneth MacKenzie 

 of Gairloch, the ash grows extremely well in a low-lying flat. Here I saw a lot of 

 beautifully grown, though not very large trees, which would have been a credit to 

 any woodland in the south. 



On the shore of Loch Fyne, a mile north of Minard Castle, a curious ash grows 

 on the beach at high- water mark, which is known as the " Nine Sisters," because nine 

 stems sprang from the same root, the largest of which when I saw them in 1907 were 



7 to 9 feet in girth. 



In Ireland the ash thrives exceedingly well ; and often attains an immense size. 

 In Co. Meath, where the soil is remarkably fertile, it has in many parts expelled all 

 the other trees from the hedgerows ; and one may drive long distances on the roads 

 between lines of flourishing ash trees, without seeing a single oak or beech. 



In the latter part of the eighteenth century several ash trees of enormous size 

 were still living, of which Hayes gives an account. 3 He relates, on the authority of 

 an official of the Dublin Society, that a tree was then standing at Donirey near 

 Clare Castle in Co. Galway, which measured in girth 42 feet at 4 feet and ^^ feet at 

 6 feet. The trunk had long been hollow, having been used 25 years before as a 



1 Tram. Scot. Arb. Soc. ix. 75 (1879). * Op. at. 454. 



3 Practical Treatise on Planting, 137, 142, 148(1794). 





