Clontarf

C 1896 H.B.Leech sent information to John Lowe for his book Yew-Trees of Great Britain and Ireland. He described the yew at Clontarf as 12′ in girth at ground level and 12′ 8” at 3′. He gave the tree a height of 40′ and an umbrage diameter of 76′.
This tree was also used by Lowe as an example of a tradition that was rife, that of some yews being credited with absurdly high ages. On p60/61 is the following: “Tradition is again at fault in the case of a tree at Yew Park, Clontarf, Co.Dublin, where there is a fine specimen, 12 feet in girth, of which the owner, H.Brougham Leech, Esq.,LL.D., writes: It is not surrounded by young shoots: it presents the appearance of a tree in the midst of a small plantation.” (The dense shade thus produced sufficiently explains the absence of shoots on the trunk.) “The branches project horizontally, and touch the ground, and then, without taking root, strike upwards again. The circumference of the shade is 76 yards…………About forty or fifty years ago a portion, including part of the trunk, fell out owing to the weight of snow after a snowstorm.”
“Tradition would make it nearly 900 years old, and says that Brian Boru, king of Ireland, died under it at the battle of Clontarf, in which he defeated the Danes on Good Friday, A.D.1014.”
Lowe adds that ‘This would make it 983 years old, while the girth is only 12 feet.”