‘Bloody hell, that can’t be’: Moment ranger discovered iconic Sycamore Gap tree had been hacked down

For park ranger Gary Pickles, 28 September 2023 started no differently to any other Friday morning.

The clock had not long gone 8am and the 55-year-old was sipping his first cup of tea of the day at his home in the village of Haydon Bridge when, suddenly, his phone pinged and an email popped up on his laptop.

It contained a report from a farmer saying the Sycamore Gap tree had been chopped down.

“I thought bloody hell, that can’t be” said the Hadrian's Wall path national trail ranger, who rushed to his car to drive to the west-to-east Military Road, running parallel to Hadrian’s Wall, for sight of the tree, usually so famously perched in a sloping dip of the wall.

“I got to the gap, and it was empty,” he said. “I thought ‘Jesus’ and I stopped to look at the fallen tree from the road before ringing up comms [communications team at Northumbria National Park Authority].”

“Shock is the way of explaining how I felt, a pang of sadness,” said Mr Pickles, who jogged to the scene of the crime and immediately sent pictures to the authority. Within hours, the tree’s destruction was making headlines across the world.

“There was a sense of you’re there and there is a job to be done,” he added. “But when I drove past after, and the tree, which I was so used to seeing, wasn’t there, that was when it felt quite difficult, quite hard. The tree had been there so long and meant so much to many, many people.”

At the nearby pub, the Twice Brewed Inn, the alarm was raised by one of the workers who thought the tree had come down in Storm Agnes. A picture shared on Facebook by the pub, which brews its own Sycamore Gap ale, quickly went viral.

“I could tell it had been cut down,” said manager Steve Blair. “There was the immediate element of surprise but then anger and question of like, ‘who would cut it down?’ The tree is as important as Hadrian’s Wall, it’s part of the scene, we were all really gutted.”

Soon the world’s media arrived. Reporters and photographers watched as conservationists worked quickly to graft living parts of the tree for future saplings, while surgeons cut the trunk down into sections for removal.

Nationally, the story was met with an outpouring of emotion. The National Trust, which owns the tree, received thousands of tributes and messages. And then there was anger. Hairy Biker Si King, who grew up in County Durham, said those responsible had “murdered a sentinel of time and elemental spirit of Northumberland”.

Kevin Reynolds, who directed the Hollywood film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, in which the tree featured in one of the film’s most famous scenes, said he was “stunned”, “gutted” and “furious”, while comparing its importance to the Taj Mahal.

A police investigation was hurriedly launched with each arrest stirring up fresh rumours and speculation that circulated for weeks. Finally, after more than six months, Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were charged with criminal damage to the tree.

On Friday, the pair were found guilty of by a jury. The court heard how Graham, a ground worker, and Carruthers, a mechanic, had gone on the “moronic mission”, driving from Carlisle to Sycamore Gap armed with a chainsaw.

While one cut the tree down, the other filmed it - before they drove away with a wedge from the tree inside their vehicle as souvenir for the criminal act. Neither claimed responsibility, and so no reason has been given for the destruction.

Back at the pub, which had CCTV of the pair’s vehicle shown to the jury in court, Mr Blair said he initially thought the tree’s destruction would have a negative impact on business. But if anything, the publicity has helped keep the tills ringing.

Its flagship Sycamore Gap ale, sold at £4.40 a pint at the bar, is its biggest seller and this year it emerged on the shelves at Sainsbury’s stores. The pub now has more than 400 seats and has its first beer festival planned for August.

Meanwhile, a fundraiser launched by the pub for the Northumbria National Park Authority tipped over £10,000 last year after an American visitor handed over more than £5,000.

“The only time I notice fewer people here is when it snows or we get a frosty morning,” said Mr Blair. “But people still want to come to this section of the wall, they still come here to photograph the beautiful scenery. And you get people coming to see the tree stump.”

It’s a similar story at the nearby campsite of Herding Hill Farm, where manager Sue Humphreys enjoyed a booked-up Easter. It’s a quieter spring so far, but Ms Humphreys hopes business will pick up at the AA Platinum Pennant site.

“People will still walk to Sycamore Gap, so it hasn’t really had an impact on tourism,” she said. “We all live in hope for a future for the tree, you can’t let these people [those convicted] stop that.”

The most popular route to the tree from Steel Rigg car park is a strenuous 30-minute walk. Last month, just ahead of the trial, there was a mix of hikers walking the section of the Hadrian’s Wall and families and visitors coming to see the fenced-off stump.

Observed clambering down from the steep banks either side of the gap, each person stopped to look at the tree stump, which now has several shoots coming from it, boosting hopes of a recovery - although growth will take several generations.

Dozens of saplings are also to be planted across the UK while the largest section of the tree will be on display at The Sill visitor centre in Northumberland this summer. “People still want contact with the tree,” said Rosie Thomas, director of business development at Northumberland National Park. “What this final installation will offer is a space for people to come and reflect which is something the public told us they wanted.”

Back at the stump of the Sycamore Gap tree, Sarah arrived from Durham to celebrate her 52nd birthday. Sat on a section of Hadrian’s Wall nearby, she said she cried when she first heard about it coming down. “It is a loss, it feels physical - to see it missing from the landscape for the first time was very difficult,” she said.

“But there’s a lot of good work happening to keep its legacy going, it’s what we all want, need, to see,” she added.

James Schuiter, 47, from Michigan in the US, said: “To see what it meant to people and the beautiful pictures before it was cut down, it’s hard to know why anyone would want to cut it down - but they will not win.”