Qualla: Major Oak

Major Oak: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Namadie Sabatier, CC BY-SA 3.0. Major Hayman Rooke saw the tree in 1790 and was already calling it a majestic ruin. The Major Oak weighs an estimated 23 tonnes, has a girth of 33 feet, a canopy stretching 92 feet across, and is somewhere between 800 and 1,000 years old. It stands in a clearing near Edwinstowe in the heart of what remains of Sherwood Forest, leaning on a forest of iron crutches and steel scaffolding, fenced off so visitors cannot compact the soil over its roots. The tree predates Magna Carta. It may or may not predate Robin Hood, depending on how literally you take the legend. What it does, indisputably, is stand.

Read more: Major Oak on Qualla

Image: Namadie Sabatier | CC BY-SA 3.0

Major Oak: Hayman Rooke's Tree

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Henry Dawson, Public domain. The oak was known as the Cockpen Tree before it was the Major Oak, because the people of nearby Edwinstowe used to hold cockfights under its canopy. The name change came courtesy of Major Hayman Rooke, a retired army officer turned antiquarian who lived nearby at Mansfield Woodho...

Read more: Major Oak on Qualla

Image: Henry Dawson | Public domain

Major Oak: The Robin Hood Question

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dadulinka, CC BY-SA 3.0. Local folklore says Robin Hood and his Merry Men slept inside the hollow of the Major Oak, which is sometimes presented in postcards as historical fact. It is not. Robin Hood, if he existed at all, was a thirteenth-century outlaw whose legend grew rapidly in the fourteenth and fi...

Read more: Major Oak on Qualla

Image: Dadulinka | CC BY-SA 3.0

Major Oak: Iron Chains and Scaffolding

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Support chains were first fitted to the Major Oak in 1908 to keep its enormous limbs from tearing free under their own weight. The scaffolding visible today, an elaborate system of pillars and props supporting the heaviest branches, has been in place since the 1970s. In 1974, aft...

Read more: Major Oak on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Major Oak: Heatwaves and a Patient Watch

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Javier Carro assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0. Since 2022 the Major Oak has produced noticeably fewer leaves each summer, a response to the repeated heatwaves and drought conditions that have stressed older oaks across England. Reports that the tree was dying spread quickly. The RSPB, which manages this part of Sherwood Fores...

Read more: Major Oak on Qualla

Image: No machine-readable author provided. Javier Carro assumed (based on copyright claims). | CC BY-SA 3.0