Found near the geological focal point of Celtic Scotland

Discovery Channel Documentary

Found near the geological focal point of Celtic Scotland is to be found an exceptional yew tree which is at present accepted to be around 5,000 years old, accordingly dating its starting points to around 3,000 B.C. This yew is to be found in Fortingall, Perthshire, which lies at the passageway to Glenlyon, the longest and ostensibly the most astounding glen in Scotland. At the point when the eighteenth century voyager and naturalist Thomas Pennant (1726 - 1798) went to Fortingall, he reported that the size of this age old yew was fifty six and a half feet. One can however ponder what is giving life power to this exceptional matured yew tree which can at present be seen to flourish at the present time, and is supposedly the most established tree in Europe.

In an area which is penetrated with an antiquated Celtic mythos identifying with pixie domains and other common devic elements, such an elderly yew tree would have been exceptionally adored amid the remote times of past artifact. In reality, it has been said that Beltane fires commending the old Mayday celebration were at one time lit at this site. In addition, this old yew may have been 3,000 years of age while, as indicated by a nearby oral custom, Pontius Pilate was conceived at Fortingall, which interprets from the gaelic placename 'Feart-nan-Gall' as the 'Fortress of the Strangers'. No place else in Scotland, or so far as that is concerned in the British Isles, has an oral convention and relationship with the introduction of Pontius Pilate; so why ought to the minor and dark village of Fortingall make a case for this custom, unless there is a characteristic component of truth in what might some way or another be regarded as a venturesome presupposition.

The yew is a primordial tree, accepted to go back for no less than two hundred million years, which significantly precedes the time of humankind. It is no big surprise that from time immemorial the interminable yew seems to have been seen as the undying tree of life and held with hallowed respect all through the ages. As indicated by old legend no doubt the yew was seen as an arcane vault, i.e. a tree of learning. It has likewise been noticed that yew trees were regularly connected with old slope fortifications and, consistent with structure, on a hoisted position near to the Fortingall Yew is to be found the remaining parts of an old slope fortress called Dun Geal which deciphers from the gaelic as 'the white stronghold'. At the season of Christ, Dun Geal was the living arrangement of the Caledonian King, Metallanus, of whom neighborhood custom cases Pontius Pilate was a relative.

Elevated photos of Fortingall uncover a stamping in the scene which is accepted to show the fenced in area or vallum of an early Christian ascetic site. This religious settlement seems to have been revolved around the Fortingall Yew tree. Such is the notoriety of this surprising Yew that in 1993 a sapling from this ancient tree was planted in Glastonbury Abbey, while simultaneously ministers from the Tibetan Buddhist religious community, Samye Ling, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, planted another sapling on Holy Island, off the shore of Arran, Scotland. All the more as of late cuttings were taken from the Fortingall Yew to be developed by the Forestry Commission at Roslin, another verifiable hallowed site in Scotland. These yew cuttings will inevitably be planted around the nation at such places as the arboretum at Scone Palace. Strangely, Scone was at one time home to the acclaimed "Stone of Destiny" which was integral to the Coronation service of the old Scottish Kings.

There has been a customary relationship with the mythos of the consecrated yew and the regular reasoning of the Celtic Druid Magi. "Without uncertainty the yew remained for hallowed secret in the Druid custom." (The Book of Druidry by Ross Nichols). In both the Druidic custom of rebirth, and the later Christian teaching of the revival, the yew was seen as a characteristic insignia of everlasting life.

There is a custom that the Cross of Christ was a yew tree most likely on account of its imagery of godlikeness. This may clarify the accompanying perception: "In spite of the fact that the Yew was planted on sanctuary destinations, and was a survival of cultus arborum (tree venerate) yet, peculiar to say, it was never harmed, yet was embraced by the Christians as a sacred image." (The Church Yew and Immortality by Vaughan Cornish). Besides, the yew likewise figures in the old stories of the wanderers who trust that the planting of a yew close to one's home gives insurance. Strangely, around a century prior rovers were observed to live in the empty churchyard yew at Leeds in the English province of Kent.

It is realized that the yew was regularly utilized as a point of interest. Expounding on straight tracks or leylines on the scene, Alfred Watkins in his great work The Old Straight Track (1925) mentions an intriguing observable fact: "There is each motivation to induce that trees were planted in ancient times as locating marks....trees are joined with stones, water [wells], peaks, hills, and fire as objects of antiquated love and even love; all these are found as locating focuses on the ley." Notably, various telluric leylines or earth vitality streams have been dowsed as going through Fortingall, subsequently demonstrating that a noteworthy earth vitality vortex might be situated here. Would this be able to represent the particular situation and maybe life span of what is rumored to be the most seasoned tree in Europe?