Magical autumn woodland

The other day, a work assignment took me to Tullamore in Co Offaly and a walk around the Charleville estate. It’s a good few years since I last visited and I’d forgotten how magical its woodland is, particularly in autumn. There is no better place in Ireland to appreciate the majesty of the pedunculate oak tree.

Most people know that there are two common species of oak in Ireland, the sessile oak, which is our national tree, and the pedunculate oak, sometimes called the English oak.

Some experts have claimed that the pedunculate oak is not native and was introduced in the late Middle Ages. Figuring this out is complicated by the fact that it’s hard to distinguish between the fossil pollen of the two species and by the fact that they hybridise readily and the hybrid offspring are fertile, giving rise to quarter-breds and three-quarter-breds. But the best scientific evidence suggests the English oak is also an Irish tree with a native range on limestone soils in the Midlands and across into east Galway.