Plans surrounding the future of Sycamore Gap, which sits next to Hadrian’s Wall, are facing “significant complications,” according to Hexham MP Guy Opperman. The well-known felled tree at the site has provoked hundreds of suggestions for its future, but Opperman said safety issues at the UNESCO World Heritage site and the lack of clarity regarding ownership make for a complex situation. Two people have been arrested on suspicion of damage to the site and released on bail.
Opperman revealed that the National Trust, who owns the land, have saved the tree’s seeds, but there are many unknowns surrounding the future of the site. “We discussed what the National Trust, who own the land, are doing on the site and began to set out a road map for the future,” he said. “We know that this tree belonged to everyone. It symbolised so much. Its loss grieves us and affects us all in a truly unfathomable way.”
Historic England plans to carry out archaeological appraisals to assess the degree of damage to part of Hadrian’s Wall when the tree came down. “There is ongoing discussion as to the future of the site and a mechanism for the public to add to the hundreds who have already made suggestions of what we do next,” Opperman said.
The National Trust continues to advise that people stay away from the site, which was famous in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Tributes to the tree have been left in a memorial room at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre in Northumberland
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