Why you can find eight American Redwood trees on the Dales Way
Walkers who follow the Dales Way long-distance trail through Upper Wharfedale are delighted to encounter this elegant stand of trees growing on the west bank of the River Wharfe.
It comes as a surprise to learn that they are a species of redwood, the giant sequoia, a tree usually associated with California.
In this country it was renamed Wellingtonia in 1853 following the death of the Duke of Wellington the previous year, and sometimes introduced to parks around stately homes with seeds brought across the Atlantic by British botanists.
The remote location of these trees near the village of Buckden is far from any of Yorkshire’s grand country houses.
They were planted by Isabella Ramsden, widow of Sir John Charles Ramsden, who was a prominent Whig and a Yorkshire MP for more than two decades.
He had purchased the Buckden Estate from the Duke of Devonshire in 1831 but died five years later at the age of 48.
In 1856 Isabella instructed her estate managers to begin a huge landscaping project at Buckden, including the creation of Redmire Wood on the opposite side of Wharfedale.
Around 45,000 trees are said to have been planted, many of them larch but also including some ornamental trees like the spectacular weeping beech introduced to the UK in the 1830s.
The eight redwoods at Buckden are more modest in size compared to those found in their native California.
The species has been described as the largest tree on earth, and one 600-800 year old specimen growing to a height of 381ft (116m) is the world’s tallest tree.
To prevent habitat damage by sightseers its precise location in the Redwood National Park has been kept secret.
There are other specimens at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park at West Bretton near Wakefield, Brodsworth Hall near Doncaster, and Ripley Castle near Harrogate.