1,200 years enduring. Wars, plagues, storms, medieval winters. And then the spring of 2026 arrived without the Major Oak—the most famous oak in England, Robin Hood’s legendary refuge in Sherwood Forest—putting out a single leaf. 🍂 That vegetal silence was the verdict: the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds officially confirmed its death on June 18.
The irony is that no epic enemy killed it. It was killed by a brutal and very modern combination: mass tourism that compacted the soil for decades until it strangled its roots, the extreme droughts of climate change—in July 2022 the area exceeded 40°C, a historic record for that region—and the very metal supports installed years ago to hold up its branches, which ended up harming it more than protecting it. According to Simon Parfey, from the tree care team, the root system was “totally disconnected from its surroundings”. 🌿
The trunk, with a circumference of 11 meters and a crown that once measured 28 meters in diameter, will remain standing for decades more, slowly decomposing as a natural habitat. And its acorns are already growing in other corners of the world. So technically, Robin Hood’s tree is still alive… only in the form of hundreds of offspring that no one knows exist. 🌱