The world’s oldest known osprey has just returned for the 20th time to Scotland after completing the 3,000-mile flight from Africa to her summer breeding territory at Loch of the Lowes in Perthshire. Britainnature wishes her a very 25th happy birthday. The bird has already lived three time longer than the average osprey. Her secret? Lots of fresh fish and foreign travel. More in The Independent (Photo by Kevin Hacker)
The Fortingall Yew is generally considered as the oldest tree in Britain. Like many yews, it stands in a churchyard. Yews were sacred for the Celts, and the Christian church often found it expedient to take over these existing sacred sites for churches. This oldest of yews is the village of Fortingall in Perthshire. Recent tests suggest the tree is some 2,000 years old, rather younger than the 5,000 years claimed by some, but still probably one of the oldest trees in Northern Europe. The yew was vandalised for tourist trinkets in the 19th century, and its once massive girths is now split into several trunks, giving the impression of several smaller trees.