Ardkinglas Champion Trees

The lower Ardkinglas Woodland Garden, often referred to as The Pinetum, was initiated in around 1875 by the Callander family. This area now provides a home for a number of Champion Trees, the tallest or broadest of their species in Britain.

Ardkinglas' favourable growing conditions lead to the exceptional size and longevity exhibited by many of the coniferous species introduced to this area of the Garden via the 19th century plant-hunters. The Champion Trees at Ardkinglas also include 'the mightiest conifer in Europe' a remarkable European Silver Fir (Abies alba) with a girth of nearly ten metres . Other champions in Ardkinglas Woodland Garden are Patagonian Cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides), Hinoki Cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa), Western Red Cedar (Thuya plicata) and Jeffrey’s Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana var. jeffreyi).

Please click here for your Champion Tree Guide.

Britains Tallest Tree!

A visit to Ardkinglas Woodland Garden to view Britain’s Tallest Tree is now a must-see experience! The tree was planted as a sapling 135 years ago, around 1875; other events around that time include the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana; Alexander Graham Bell demonstrating his telephone to Queen Victoria and Tchaikovsky completing the music for Swan Lake.  It regained the title that it had held prior to the loss of its growing tip in the 1990s.