In a thoughtless and ugly act of desecration, a person or persons cut down one of England’s most celebrated and historically significant trees. Known as Robin Hood’s Tree, a label it picked up after being featured in the 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” the large sycamore tree had stood tall and strong beside Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland for the past three centuries. But on the morning of September 28, passersby were shocked to find the broken tree lying across the top of the ancient Roman wall, having been intentionally toppled by vandals.

A close examination of the remaining stump revealed that the tree had been cleanly cut just above ground level, most likely with a chain saw since the cut line had been deliberately marked with a white line before the stunning act of destruction occurred. The tree would have been cut down sometime during the previous night, presumably in the wee hours of the morning when the desecrators would have been able to escape detection. A 16-year-old boy has just been arrested on suspicion of committing the act.

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The Robin Hood Tree, which is also known as the Sycamore Gap tree, grew close to Hadrian’s Wall near the village of Hexham, at the bottom of a small valley formed by a steep dip in the landscape. The tree’s unique and singular profile helped make it popular with tourists and hikers, and those who ventured into the English countryside to walk along Hadrian’s Wall often stopped to pose for photographs standing alongside what had become something of a national landmark.

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