Visitors to a Perthshire beauty spot are being urged to stop hammering coins into tree stumps.
The trend – which the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) says started about 12 years ago at The Hermitage – can poison the wood for a lot of wildlife.
The practice is thought to come from 19th-century healing rituals which involved hammering coins into ‘wishing trees’.
The issue has now been highlighted on social media by an environmental campaigner.
Louise Medine, a north Perthshire ranger, said: “There was a traditional where people did this across the UK – there is a tree on the west coast made famous by Queen Victoria – but not here.
“In recent years, people have reinvented the idea.
“We first saw it after a series of storms in 2010 and 2011 where there were stumps left.
“Over the years, people have been adding to it and now it has gone from one main stump to half a dozen.
“Because people see it happening, they think it is OK.
Metal from coins on Hermitage tree stumps can poison wildlife
“It sounds like we are spoiling people’s fun, but from a conservation point of view, we leave the decaying stumps to be used as habitats.
“The coins mean beetles or spiders can’t get into them as much and the metal can also poison them.
“Then, higher up the food chain, woodpeckers can’t come down and look for these grubs.
“It is also one of our most popular properties and if kids are scampering around they can get hurt as the coins can be really sharp.”
Signs have been posted around the forest, but Louise says if people do not stop putting coins into tree stumps, more will need to be done.
She added: “Our teams can’t actually remove the stumps because there is so much metal in them we can’t go in and use the chainsaw.
“We thought about putting in fairy boxes for people to donate instead of hammering in the coins.
“We can’t use the coins if they are in the trees but we could take them as donations to help with conservation that way.”
Thousands see TikTok video about Hermitage coins
Social media influencer Sarah Mackenzie has gained more than 70,000 likes on a TikTok video calling for the trend to stop.
She says the problem is causing “unnecessary trouble” for forest rangers.
Sarah found UK coins, as well as Euros and American dimes, hammered into deadwood at The Hermitage, which lies off the A9 near Dunkeld.
Sarah runs a travel blog highlighting vegan-friendly travel spots and cruelty-free tourist attractions.
She decided to post a video about the coins after coming across signs asking visitors to stop the practice during a visit to the Perthshire forest.
She told The Courier: “It was the first time I had seen tree stumps like that.
“As someone who travels across Scotland a lot, I’m glad we’re creating awareness about it.”
Conversation