Dule Tree - Surviving Examples

Surviving Examples

These trees were often close to the residence of the lord or clan chief and one of the best known Dule Trees, or 'Hanging Trees', stands within the grounds of Leith Hall, near Huntly, Aberdeenshire. This tree, a sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), was used as a natural gibbet and a means for publicly carrying out feudal justice. The strong timber, not prone to snapping, of sycamore made this a favoured species for this purpose. Incidentally, sycamores used to be known as 'plane' trees in Scotland. Leith Hall dates from about 1650 and the tree was possibly planted shortly after this. A rather gaunt and heavily branched tree, the trunk measures 116 cm in diameter.

At Cessnock Castle near Galston, East Ayrshire is a dule tree, a gnarled specimen of Castanea sativa - sweet chestnut.

An old beech tree is still known as a 'Gallows Tree' and grows in an exposed position near Monikie in Angus.

The Dule tree at Cassillis Castle in South Ayrshire was blown down in a great storm during the winter of 1939-40 and when the rings on its trunk were counted, it was found to be about 200 years old. A new Dule tree, grown from a cutting taken from the old one, a plane tree or sycamore maple now stands on the original site. John or Johnny Faa, King of the Gypsies is said to have been hanged from the Cassillis Dule Tree, together with some of his supporters. On the Water of Minnoch is a deep pool known as the 'Murder Hole' in which a family from Rowantree dumped their victims; they were caught, confessed and were the last to be hanged on the dule tree.

The author Joseph Train records however that at the last shire-mote ever held in Carrick by the Earl of Cassillis, the MacKillups of Craingenreach were hung on the dule tree of Cassillis circa 1746, having murdered a neighbour and thrown his remains into "the common murder hole of the Bailiery at Craigenreach".

Kilkerran house in South Ayrshire has a dule tree in its grounds.

The ancient sycamore that stands in the shadow of Blairquhan Castle, near Straiton, South Ayrshire is thought to be Dule Tree, planted early in the 16th century during the reign of King James V of Scotland. The moss-covered trunk has a girth of 5.6 metres (18 feet 4 inches), and is completely hollow, with only a very thin outer shell of sound wood supporting the tree. The once spreading crown was heavily pruned in 1997 in an effort to preserve the fragile shell and prevent the much-weakened trunk from total collapse. Vigorous new growth is now establishing a new, smaller crown.

Near the village of Logierait in Perthshire is the hollow ` Ash Tree of the Boat of Logierait, ' which, 63 feet in height and 40 in girth at 3 feet from the ground, is said to have been ` the dool tree of the district, on which caitiffs and robbers were formerly executed, and their bodies left hanging till they dropped and lay around unburied. '

An example may still exist at Bargany in South Ayrshire where a European Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), served the role of the baronial dule tree.

An example is said to survive at Douglas Castle, located around 1 km north-east of the village of Douglas, South Lanarkshire aka Castle Dangerous of Sir Walter Scott's novel of that name.

Smith records in 1895 that the stump of the Dule tree at Newark Castle was carefully preserved.

Hangman's Elm, or simply "The Hanging Tree", is an English Elm located in New York City, over 300 years old. Traitors are said to have been hanged at this location during the American Revolutionary War. Later, the Marquis de Lafayette is said to have witnessed the 'festive' hanging of 20 highwaymen here in 1824.