Jimmy wrote to say; "We have a Giant Redwood in Lurgan Park, County Armagh Northern Ireland, which was on the Estate of the Brownlow family. Local folklore tells that it was planted to commemorate the Battle of waterloo, can you confirm if this is true or can you tell me the Duke of Wellington connection to the tree I am told there is another in Gosford Forrest Park twenty miles away. I have measured the girth of the Lurgan Tree and found it to be 18ft and I have estimated the height as 36.5m by the stick method"
Thank you for letting me know about the Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in Lurgan Park. I understand that the common name Wellingtonia was named in honour of the Duke of Wellington, and its discovery was almost forty years after the Battle of Waterloo, so I think it's more a loose association with the battle due to the Duke. Interestingly I had heard that the Americans were not too pleased with the adoption of this name because they wanted to call it Washingtonia in honour of President Washington. How much truth there is in that I cannot say! |
