By Mike Donachie

THE OLDEST living thing in Europe and the last remnant of a spot immortalised in Shakespeare’s Macbeth are among the impressive Perthshire attractions to benefit from a £500,000 National Lottery grant announced yesterday.

The ancient Fortingall Yew and the Birnam Oak—the living relic of Macbeth’s Birnam Wood—are just two of the arboreal attractions involved in the Big Tree Country campaign to promote Perthshire’s towering heritage.

Groups working to promote the area under the banner of Big Tree Country were celebrating £526,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will be used to protect and promote remarkable trees and woodlands.

Perthshire’s Big Tree Country Heritage and Access Project, a partnership led by the Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust, will tell the story of Perthshire’s tree and woodland heritage through a network of 20 woodland heritage locations.

Paths will be upgraded to provide Access for All routes, with information to describe the sites’ history, while the lives of the trees will be prolonged with management and conservation plans.

There will also be a programme of propagation of some species to provide genetically related replacements.

The aim is also to involve all 91 schools in Perth and Kinross, with a community outreach officer and a mobile classroom.

Partnership spokesman Syd House, of Forestry Commission Scotland, said, “This is fantastic news, and we’re very grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

“With this grant we will be able to realise our ambition of putting in place a range of measures not only to look after and protect the wonderful heritage of trees, woods and forests of Perthshire, but also to bring them closer to local people and visitors alike.

“We will do this with measures such as improved access, particularly for less able visitors; better interpretation to aid knowledge and understanding of this living heritage; and enhanced promotion to a worldwide audience.

“Many of these sites, such as the Hermitage at Dunkeld or the Queen’s View overlooking Loch Tummel, are already extremely popular with visitors. This work will not only enhance the experience for visitors, to the benefit of the local economy, but also help protect the unique heritage represented by trees like the Birnam Oak and the Fortingall Yew, which are of international natural and cultural importance.”

Perthshire boasts 22 of the 100 Heritage Trees of Scotland celebrated in a 2003 book of the same name, including the Birnam Oak, the Fortingall Yew and Niel Gow’s Oak, under which the famous fiddler composed many of his tunes.

The Big Tree Country partnership comprises Forestry Commission Scotland, Perth and Kinross Council, Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage, Perth-shire Tourist Board and Scottish Enterprise Tayside.

Colin McLean, the Heritage Lottery Fund’s manager for Scotland, said, “Scotland’s natural environment is one of its biggest assets. The mountain summits, ancient woodlands and heritage trees, moorlands and cultivated gardens all contain a rich biodiversity that is tragically being lost.

“HLF is committed to providing a better future for Scotland’s environment, protecting what we have for generations to come while increasing access and learning opportunities for people today.

“Thanks to lottery funds, there are already 80 projects across the country from the vital work of national organisations to the local volunteers making a difference in their community.

“Today’s announcement is great news for it secures important natural sites so our wildlife can flourish.”

North Tayside MSP John Swinney added, “I was delighted to hear of the substantial award given to the Big Tree Country project from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The great trees of the constituency, including the Fortingall Yew and the Birnam Oak are ... known throughout the world.

“I am certain that these funds will go some way to ensuring that they are promoted and preserved for future generations. I am pleased to see that local schools are to become involved in the project and the mobile classroom is certainly an interesting idea.

“I hope that following this grant, we will see the Big Tree Country continue to thrive.”

For more information about Perthshire’s heritage of remarkable trees visit www.perthshirebigtree country.co.uk and www. treefestscotland.org.uk/ heritage.

Awards were also made yesterday to Crarae Gardens near Inverary, which received £297,500, and Viking Heaths in Orkney, which was given £950,500.