The picturesque ruin of Dryburgh Abbey is in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. Founded by the Premonstratensian order of monks in 1152 it has had an unfortunate history of pillage and destruction. Burned by the English in 1322, it was restored then burned again in 1385. Rebuilt once more it was finally destroyed in 1544. In 1786 it was bought by the 11th Earl of Buchan. It is the burial place of Sir Walter Scott.
The Dryburgh Abbey Yew was noted in Loudon’s Arboretum and Fruticetum Part III (1838) and has long been claimed to have been planted by monks in 1136. In John Lowe’s Yew Trees of Great Britain and Ireland (1897) he totally refutes this possibility and concludes it is no more than 300 years old giving it a planting date in the late 16th century at the earliest. With a girth of around 400 cm this would seem to confirm Lowe’s conclusion.
However, the Borders Forest Trust have examined historical records of growth rates which show this is an extremely slow growing yew and despite its relatively modest girth, it could be as old as claimed. If so it is nearly 900 years old. If so, this yew is remarkable indeed but for more than the obvious reason, which is that ‘typically’ a yew that age would be around twice the girth size and probably be hollow. If it is as old as claimed then we must wonder how it has survived all the historic devastation at Dryburgh.
There is another yew which is overlooked at Dryburgh. It was noted by John Lowe in his Yew Trees of Great Britain and Ireland (1897) and he states that in 1887 it was 3 ft. 8 ins. in girth at 3 ft. high. This translates to a 112 cm girth at 90 cm high. Lowe also notes that the age of the yew can be “verified by a tablet of stone on the north side of the Erskine burying ground, which states that this tree was planted from the seed bed by the Earl of Buchan, 1789….This is somewhat a slow rate of growth, yielding only 1 foot of diameter in 82.8 years.” No girth measurements have been taken recently of this yew which is 231 years old (in 2020) to see if it still exhibits a slow rate of growth. If it does it implies that yews do indeed grow more slowly for some reason at Dryburgh Abbey.
