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The tree stood proudly for hundreds of years, alone in a dramatic depression in the countryside of Northumberland, England, just off Hadrian’s Wall. Arguably England’s most photographed tree, the Sycamore Gap tree attracted visitors from afar and appeared in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Now it’s just a tree stump. The beloved tree’s centuries-old life was ended by what authorities believe was a deliberate act of vandalism. Northumbria Police said on Thursday they had arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of felling the famous tree.
“People’s ashes were scattered there. People proposed there. I had a picnic there with my wife and children,” North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “It’s part of our collective soul.”
Earlier on Thursday, Northumbria Police said in a statement that it had launched an investigation and vowed to bring those responsible to justice. The Northumberland National Park Authority asked the public not to visit the site in the meantime.
The fallen tree and stump were cordoned off by police on Thursday.
The Woodland Trust named the Sycamore Gap English Tree of the Year in 2016. As night fell, the tree formed a striking silhouette on the horizon. It grew in a depression along Hadrian’s Wall, the 73-mile-long stone wall built by the Roman army in 122 AD to mark the northwestern border of the Roman Empire – a role it played for three centuries until the end remained on the island during Roman rule.
The National Trust, a British heritage charity that helped care for the tree, said It said it was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the news and was working to understand what happened and what could be done. “We know how beloved this iconic tree is locally, nationally and by all visitors,” the organization added.
The tree was believed to be around 300 years old.