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Tree of the Year 2026

You voted in your thousands to help us crown this year's Tree of the Year and now we have our winner!

County Down's Bendy Tree was voted Tree of the Year 2026.

Credit: Michael Cooper Photography

The winner of UK Tree of the Year 2026 is the Bendy Tree, a wych elm on Newcastle's sea front in County Down, Northern Ireland.

This year’s national contest celebrated trees that have gone the extra mile, surviving an array of challenges and still standing strong against the odds. These extraordinary trees are icons in their communities, clinging on despite extreme growing conditions, disease, lightning strikes and even cannonball fire! Each one is remarkable to look at and has an even more remarkable story behind it.

The 10 finalists included trees selected by our expert panel and two trees nominated by the public. 

The Bendy Tree won with an impressive 31% of the vote.

Runner up with 22% of the votes was the Crowhurst Yew, a 4,000-year-old tree in Surrey that's survived a violent 1845 storm, being hollowed out for a meeting place and cannonball fire.

In third place, the Balloch Castle Ash had 10% of the votes. One of our public nominations this year, the resilient ash is believed to have survived a lightning strike, as well as a 1968 hurricane, multiple storms and now ash dieback.

Over 20,000 of you voted for your favourite tree this year. Thank you all for taking the time to share in the joy of these special trees with us.

Do you know a future Tree of the Year?

Our Tree of the Year competition aims to highlight how vital trees are for our landscapes and our lives. But our woods and trees - a real force in combatting climate change and biodiversity loss - are under greater threat than ever before.

The UK's oldest and most special trees should be valued and protected. Many are recorded on the Ancient Tree Inventory, but thousands more are out there and we need your help to find them. You can add important trees in your community to the map in three easy steps and help them get the recognition they deserve.

Help map our special trees

The winner's story

The gravity-defying Bendy Tree is a much-loved icon on the central promenade and a real fighter. Growing almost horizontally, its incredible shape is testament to the harsh coastal conditions it has withstood for more than a century.

As a native wych elm, it has also resisted the Dutch elm disease that has ravaged many others of its species, making this a rare example as well as an impressive-looking one. Its unique appearance has made it well-known in the community and it's a popular meeting spot and photography subject too.

The Bendy Tree was planted with many others to protect the original Newcastle promenade, likely around the mid-19th century and perhaps as part of the grounds of the new hotel. But many of those trees were felled in the 1980s for redevelopment of the promenade and the Bendy Tree is the last one standing from that era.

The 2026 finalists

  1. Bendy Tree, Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland

  2. Crowhurst Yew, Crowhurst, Surrey, England

  3. Bomber Oak, near Uppingham, Rutland, England

  4. Preston Twin, Brighton, Sussex, England

  5. Culmstock Yew, Culmstock, Devon, England

  6. Bollihope Burn Birch, near Stanhope, County Durham, England

  7. Wales Coast Path Oak, Eglwys Fach, Ceredigion, Wales

  8. Earlstoun Lightning Oak, Dalry, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

  9. Balloch Castle Ash, Loch Lomond, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland

  10. Donnington Castle Oak, Newbury, Berkshire, England

Our thanks to players of the Postcode Lottery for supporting this year's competition.

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