The eventual winner as biggest beech was this giant at Castle Coole in Co Fermanagh, which measured 21 feet around, but there is always the possibility that yet larger ones may yet be discovered. The Castle Coole beech was pollarded – this form of tree management means that large branches are cut back on a fairly mature tree, encouraging new growth of branches and a strengthening and thickening of the trunk.
Previous contenders for the ‘biggest beech’ title included trees in the Armagh Observatory, roadside trees at Raholp, near Strangford, Co. Down, a beech in Killynether Wood at Scrabo Country Park, and a farm beech at Drumwhinny near Kesh in Co Fermanagh. These latter trees are believed to have been planted in the eighteenth century, making them at least 200 years old.