Tree of the Year 2026

A tree may be a village’s oldest inhabitant, a much-loved local landmark, a place to meet, play or exercise, or a gardener’s pride and joy. Whatever their story, Tree of the Year aims to highlight and appreciate how vital trees are for our landscapes and our lives.

Trees clean our air, cool our streets, reduce flooding, support wildlife and boost our health and wellbeing. This year’s Tree of the Year contest is celebrating the trees that have gone the extra mile, surviving an array of challenges and still standing strong against the odds. These extraordinary trees are icons in their communities, clinging on despite extreme growing conditions, disease, lightning strikes and even cannonball fire! Each one is remarkable to look at and has an even more remarkable story behind it.

Our expert panel had the difficult task of shortlisting these 10 inspirational trees for this year’s competition. Now it’s your turn to vote for your favourite and help us crown a champion as Tree of the Year 2026.

Voting is open until 5pm on 29 September and we'll announce this year's winner in October.

This gravity-defying tree is a much-loved icon on the central promenade and a real fighter. Growing almost horizontally, its incredible shape is testament to the harsh coastal conditions it has withstood for more than a century. As a native wych elm, it has also resisted the Dutch elm disease that has ravaged many others of its species, making this a rare example as well as an impressive-looking one. It was planted with many others along the original promenade, likely around the mid-19th century, to protect the main street, perhaps as part of the grounds of the new hotel. But many of those trees were felled in the 1980s for redevelopment of the promenade and the Bendy Tree is now the last one standing from that era. 

Vote for the Bendy Tree

A lot of today’s trees were around during the 17th century English Civil War, but this is the only one we know of that can claim to have survived direct cannon fire! In 1820, villagers discovered a cannonball embedded inside the trunk, thought to result from a wayward shot at the opposite farm which may have been a target for Cromwell’s troops. The discovery was made when the villagers hollowed out the trunk to create a room as a parish meeting place, tables, chairs, door and all. The roof of this hollowed out room collapsed during a violent storm in 1845, and yet this tenacious tree lived on. It still stands in St George’s churchyard, with the wooden door giving a clue to the tree’s astonishing past.

Vote for the Crowhurst Yew

From a distance, this tree looks like many others in our countryside, but this 180-year-old oak, on a family farm in Rutland, knows a thing or two about survival. Up close, you can see it has a story to tell, with a slight dip in the top of the canopy and twisted, misshapen central branches that have clearly suffered damage. Incredibly, it was hit by a Lancaster Bomber on 26 April 1945, with the impact slicing the tree’s top off and unfortunately spelling the plane’s end. It had been returning prisoners of war to England from Germany and managed to fly a few more miles before crashing. Sadly, only two of the seven men survived.

The Bomber Oak recovered from the collision, but decades later, was almost lost when a water company claiming statutory powers planned to install pipes in the field. Fortunately, objections from locals including Andrew, whose family have owned the farm for several generations, were successful. The pipes had to go around the field and the Bomber Oak lives on.

Vote for the Bomber Oak

This ancient English elm in Preston Park is likely the world’s oldest. It has survived four centuries, but in the face of Dutch elm disease, the last 100 years have been the toughest. The disease has wiped out millions of trees and changed the British landscape forever, killing up to 40% of our elms when it first arrived in the 1920s before a more aggressive, deadly strain followed in the sixties.

This tree’s survival is testament to the council’s management. Rather than felling as a preventative measure, Brighton has used beetle traps, pruned infected branches and dug trenches to prevent the disease spreading through root systems.

Another elm of the same age once stood beside this special tree and the council’s constant vigilance maintained the pair for decades, but the second Preston Twin was fatally infected in 2018. It was felled to protect the healthy elm and turned into an artwork which still stands next to its twin.  

Vote for the Preston Twin

Leaning from the top of a 20-metre-high church tower is one of the last places you’d expect to see a tree, but this one has been looking out over Culmstock village for at least 200 years. It grows not from soil but straight out of the flint rubble masonry, sustained by the lime and sand mortar and occasional waterings during hot weather. To flourish in such conditions at all is impressive, but this tower-top tree has clung on for centuries. Mentions in a local directory from 1857, an 1894 R.D. Blackmore novel and poems from 1878 and 1900 all highlight that its existence pre-dates residents’ living memories.

No-one really knows how it got there, but reports suggest a seed could have been accidentally mixed into mortar during repairs or carried by a bird. A third theory is that it was planted to displace evil spirits when the roof was sealed in the 1300s, known as a topping out ceremony.

The tree was reported as failing in 1904, showing signs of undernourishment and dying branches. It clearly bounced back, and modern surveys show both tree and tower remain healthy.

Vote for the Culmstock Yew

Clinging to a cliff face above the Bollihope Burn, this tree overlooks a picturesque spot in the Weardale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It’s easy to see why the lush landscape, filled with the sound of birdsong and tinkling water, is popular with walkers. But this area was once dominated by industry, dotted with numerous quarries, lime kilns, mines and a goods railway. This ancient downy birch has stood through it all. Perched precariously on the rock’s edge, its twisted trunk, far-reaching branches and sprawling roots give the impression the tree has almost walked, inch by inch over the years, to find purchase and save itself from the sheer drop.

Vote for the Bollihope Burn Birch

An unusual standalone oak in this mid-Wales landscape, this tree grows on the Ynys-hir nature reserve. Like a lone sentinel, it overlooks the Dyfi estuary, the Cambrian Mountains rising to the south and the foothills of southern Eryri to the north. In this exposed spot, it has endured years of storms and draughts as well as grazing, and offered shade and shelter for many weary walkers and hungry picnickers on the Wales Coast Path. Such harsh West Wales weather may have affected its growth, making its age harder to judge. Although small in stature, it is a charismatic tree that has survived against the odds.

Vote for the Wales Coast Path Oak

Despite losing a major limb to a lightning strike many years ago, this ancient oak continues to stand its ground. A thick scar travels from the branch’s severed end all the way down the trunk to meet the ground. The trunk grows at a noticeable angle, perhaps helping the tree to rebalance and survive after being almost split in two.

In the 1850s, this tree was recorded as 300 years old and marked on maps as the Big Oak of Earlstoun. Standing mere yards from now-derelict Earlstoun Castle, it was once part of a vast ancient woodland, all belonging to Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun. He was outlawed after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679 but often returned to his estate, hiding in this tree when government troops were too close for comfort. He eventually earned his freedom but was deep in debt, so sold his ancient woodland to be felled. This tree was spared, perhaps cherished for its age, or its sentimental value after it helped Alexander evade capture.

Vote for the Earlstoun Lightning Oak

Chosen from our public nominations, this unique-looking veteran ash tree has shown incredible resilience. Dominating the exposed lawn of the disused castle at Balloch Castle Country Park, it is believed to have survived a lightning strike, as well as a 1968 hurricane, multiple storms and now ash dieback. With over a million visitors to the park each year, people frequently picnic and pose for photos on the tree’s immense roots and buttressing too – including Oasis fans during a 1996 gig at the park.

Local people and organisations passionate about protecting the park have helped give this tree time to grow into a sculpture-like tower of strength, resilience and wonder.

Vote for the Balloch Castle Ash

Chosen from our public nominations, this mammoth ancient oak would have been a young tree during the English Civil War. It stands little more than the length of a football pitch from the walls of Donnington Castle but, amazingly, survived unscathed from repeated barrages of ammunition when the castle was held under siege. July 1644 marked the beginning of a gruelling 20 months of assault, including 12 days of continual cannon fire from one side of the hill which demolished three towers and breached the walls. This was followed by 19 days of bombardment from the opposite side of the hill, with over 1,000 shots fired. Weapons were highly inaccurate at this time and the oak was certainly within range of the attacks, so it’s no mean feat that it lived through the war – and the following three centuries – to overlook the wood we see today. 

Vote for the Donnington Castle Oak

Our thanks to players of Postcode Lottery for supporting Tree of the Year 2026.