The Birnham Oak in Perth and Kinross

'Fear not, till Birnam wood, Do come to Dunsinane

For those of you not up on your Shakespeare quotes, the above line is one of the most quoted from Macbeth. It refers to Macbeth’s steadfast belief that his place on the throne was assured as Birnam Wood would never move. Of course Malcolm’s army cut down branches from the wood to use as camouflage thus fulfilling the prophecy – and the rest is history.

The Birnam Oak itself stands a few hundred metres from the centre of Birnam and may well have been part of Birnam Wood itself at the time of the historic battle 900 years ago. It is certainly a majestic ancient oak and fact or fiction is sure to have borne witness to many historic events.

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