Once upon a time, deep in the heart of the mythical forest of Sherwood, stood a true giant of nature. For more than a thousand years, the Major Oak stood there as the silent guardian of its most beautiful secrets.
Legend has it that in its own foliage and in its huge, hollow trunk, Robin Hood and his loyal companions took refuge, planning how they would steal from the rich to give to the poor, escaping the eyes of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Under her shadow, Robin and Maid Marian exchanged vows of eternal love. But even fairy tales have an end.
This spring, for the first time in its 1,200-year history, the mythical giant did not produce a single green leaf. Scientists from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) – the charity that manages the forest – believe the Great Oak has died.
The cause of death
While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the tree’s withering, the RSPB explained that most of the damage was caused by a combination of things.
On the one hand, the huge armies of tourists who visited it every day and on the other, the older efforts that were made to support its trunk, which, although they started with good intentions, eventually burdened it.
The organization added that climate change, with recent heatwaves and droughts, dealt the finishing blow to a tree that was already struggling with the weight of its age.
The Great Oak will remain in place in Sherwood Forest as a habitat for wildlife and a ‘natural monument’ for visitors. At the same time saplings have already been planted all over the world.
The legend and the name
Legend has it that the outlaw Robin Hood used the tree’s hollow trunk, which was actually created by fungus, as a hideout.
The oak has had many names in the past, but ‘Major’ prevailed after the tree was mentioned in a book in 1790 by Major Hayman Rooke, a former British army soldier who lived at Mansfield Woodhouse, a few miles from the forest, after his discharge. According to the BCC, citing the RSPB, this book sparked the first waves of tourism to the forest and the world-famous tree.
The great actress Dame Judi Dench, known for her deep love of centuries-old trees, said goodbye in her own way to the Great Oak.
As patron and ambassador for the environmental organization Woodland Trust, she enthused: “The Great Oak has inspired countless stories, poems, paintings and people for more than 1,000 years, teeming with life and providing a home to a huge variety of wildlife.
I was lucky enough to plant an oak sapling from Sherwood Forest in my garden recently, along with Woodland Trust chief executive Darren Moorcroft. It has a special place next to the sprout from the Sycamore Gap tree. I hope that anyone who has been inspired by the Great Oak, or any other ancient tree, will call for improved legal protection for these iconic and vital elements of our national landscape.”
The battle for her salvation
Although the stories surrounding the ancient tree attracted visitors, its particularly long branches, spreading foliage and hollow trunk, measuring around 11 meters in circumference, made it an iconic landmark in Nottinghamshire.
At one time, visitors could climb inside the oak’s hollow trunk, but since the 1970s, when a fence was placed around the tree, they now admire it from a distance. Early conservation and protection efforts included props for some of its larger branches, and although they were intended to help the oak, they are likely to have contributed to its demise, the RSPB added.
In recent years, there had been a “noticeable decline” in the quality and quantity of its leaves. Recent conservation work had focused on the ground beneath the tree, which had been trampled by the footsteps of its many visitors. The organization explained that this compaction made it difficult for rainwater to penetrate the soil and for the tree’s root system to absorb the oxygen and nutrients it needed.
Great lesson for the future
Ed Pine, senior conservation adviser for the Woodland Trust, said it was “one of the most important trees in the country”.
“Seeing the loss of a tree like this is always incredibly tragic,” he told the BBC. “The Grand Oak is probably the most famous ancient tree in the UK. We learned so much from the work we did that we could apply to other trees around the country.”
He added that had it not been for challenges such as climate change and 200 years of tourist visits that compacted the soil around it, the tree could have lived for hundreds of years more, as trees “don’t die of old age”. As he said the tree will not disappear immediately. As it decomposes over the coming decades, it will provide shelter for many animals and plants.
Chloe Ryder, the RSPB’s Sherwood Forest estate operations manager, said the cause of the tree’s death was “complex”, but agreed that tourism played a role due to soil compaction.
He said staff had been doing “everything they could” since taking over the site to keep it alive. “It is of such great importance to Sherwood Forest. Now we know that this happened very late, right in the final stages of his life. But nothing more could be done, unless you discovered a time machine, really,” he added.
Simon Parfey, an expert in soil microbiology testing – who has been part of the team of experts looking after the tree since 2021 – said the soil around the oak was “under a lot more stress than anyone realised”.
“While the Great Oak team worked tirelessly to revitalize the environment around this iconic tree — and saw encouraging signs of life in some areas — the damage, it now appears, was already too deep-rooted to fully reverse,” he said. Parfay concluded that the lessons learned from the Great Oak will help care for other ancient trees across Britain.”[‘[‘
