First Sycamore Gap tree ‘offsprings’ to be planted

The first saplings grown from the illegally cut Çınar Gap tree will be planted this weekend.

The National Trust said five saplings would be planted in Coventry, Staffordshire, Berkshire, Cambridge and Strabane on Saturday.

More plantings will take place in Hexham, Leeds and Sunderland next week.

The initiative, part of the charity’s Trees of Hope initiative, received nearly 500 applications for 49 saplings grown from seeds salvaged from the tree, which stood in a pit next to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland until two men from Cumbria cut it down one night in September 2023.

Daniel Michael Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, was imprisoned He was sentenced to four years and three months in prison in July after being found guilty of criminal damage.

Hilary McGrady, chief executive of the National Trust, said the saplings would be an inspiration and home for nature, as well as a reminder that “even after something so meaningless, there are always good things worth fighting for”.

There are a total of 49 saplings, one for each foot of the young tree.

More than half of these will be planted during National Tree Week, which runs from November 22 to November 30.

The first places to plant trees on Saturday include The Tree Sanctuary in Coventry, where three young people have set up a project to save their city’s trees, and a site commemorating the Minnie Pit mine disaster in Staffordshire.

The saplings will also go to Greenham Common in Berkshire. Lisnafin Community Center in Strabane and Coton Loves Pollinators in Cambridge.

Martina Irwin, co-founder of Tree Sanctuary in Coventry, said planting the saplings would be truly special.

“We chose to plant this among the other ‘rescued’ trees we have planted on Sowe Common, it acts as a beacon to inspire respect, understanding and a sense of responsibility towards all trees,” he said.

Next week the saplings will take root at the Rob Burrow Motor Neurone Disease Center at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds, Hexham General Hospital in Northumberland and the Veterans in Crisis charity in Sunderland.

An additional sapling gifted to Henshaw England Primary School, the closest school to Sycamore Gap, will be planted on its grounds in early December.

In early 2026, a further 15 saplings will be placed in each of the National Parks in the UK, including Northumberland National Park, where the tree is located.

Andrew Poad, general manager of the National Trust’s Hadrian’s Wall properties, said: “It’s incredible to think that the first ‘offspring’ of this very famous tree will be planted this weekend.

“It seems like yesterday that these temporary first shoots appeared.”

He added that he hopes the saplings will touch the lives of many people “just like the original tree.”

The first sapling grown from the Sycamore Gap tree was gifted to His Majesty the King last summer and will be planted for the country at a later date, the National Trust said.