Notable Tree Collections in Britain, Ireland and the islands

Scotland

Champion conifers have become increasingly concentrated in the Highlands, whose cool humid climate allows them to thrive for longest. Some prefer the east's cold dry winters, while others need the mild, wet conditions of the west coast. Many of these Champions are in private estates where the use of non-native conifers for forestry was pioneered in the 18th and 19th centuries; they should prove long-lived, though few have been revisited in recent years.

Ireland

Ireland's Champion Trees are concentrated, even more than Scotland's, within the demesnes of big houses; only in recent years have more of these trees become accessible to the public thanks to open days and the conversion of old mansions into hotels. Particularly in the west, the well-timbered great estates contrast dramatically with often treeless farmland and mountains; trees have acquired a political dimension, being associated with or even come to symbolise past oppression, so that often the will has been lacking to plant or protect trees. Ireland has the lowest proportion of semi-natural woodland of any European country; in only a few mountains did interests such as iron-smelting ensure the preservation of managed woodlands. Most of the country's remaining 'holy trees' are thorn bushes, and there is evidence that Ireland's ancient yews were destroyed comparatively recently; only a few big examples survive in private parks. Only in parts of the south-east is there a tradition of preserving big field and hedge trees.
The climate is predominantly mild and humid: conifers thrive throughout, and very tender trees can be grown all around the coasts.
The south and east coasts are also quite sunny, to the benefit of heat-loving trees. Most places are within sight of a mountain, but as these stand singly or in short ranges, they tend not to provide pockets of deep shelter of the kind which have grown the many tall trees of Highland Scotland and the Welsh Marches. Rich and well-watered limestone soils predominate, particularly in the midlands, and these superb growing conditions help to explain the high proportion of the Champions of common trees which have been discovered in Ireland's old parks. These parks are most numerous in the more 'civilised' Leinster, while the especially mild conditions of Cork and Kerry attracted many gentleman gardeners.

A high proportion of the trees featured here were first noted during the course of the Tree Register of Ireland project in 1999-2000; many more presumably await discovery.

Wales

Most of the finest trees are in the populous south-east, and along the Marches where the shelter of the mountains combines with rich soils derived from the Old Red Sandstone to grow huge oaks, an abundance of ancient churchyard Yews, and some of Britain's tallest trees. Conifers also thrive in the lea of Snowdonia in the north. The rural west is mild but often exposed to Atlantic gales; some notable trees here probably await discovery.