Fortingall

We headed north, a bit farther into the highlands to visit the very small settlement of Fortingall.



The main (nearly the only) thing here is the small church (closed, naturally) and the surrounding cemetery. Here is the memorial to war fallen.

It has its collection of interesting gravestones.

A neatly ordered church stands here. To bad we couldn't get inside.

These scroll-top gravestones are quite striking.

But the real reason for our visit is this tree. This yew tree is estimated to be at least 5,000 years old and is certainly the oldest living thing in Europe, and quite possibly the oldest in the world.

Inside the surrounding wall are two trunks tha form this plant.

As you can see, both are suitably gnarled and wizened. The sidewalk leading to the tree contains representations and descriptions of significant events that happened during the lifetime of the tree. This pretty much covered everything, as you would expect.