The Sycamore Gap tree was cut down with a chainsaw on the night of 27–28 September 2023, and its stump is still alive. Two men were jailed for four years and three months each in July 2025. One of them, Adam Carruthers, was released early in April 2026.
Who Cut Down the Sycamore Gap Tree?
Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, two men from Cumbria, felled the tree in a single night and were convicted of it eighteen months later.
A jury of seven women and five men at Newcastle Crown Court found both men guilty on 9 May 2025, after just over five hours of deliberation. Graham, then 39, and Carruthers, then 32, each faced two counts of criminal damage: one for the tree, and one for Hadrian’s Wall, which the trunk struck as it came down.
The damage was put at £622,191 for the tree and £1,144 for the wall. Both men had denied involvement and said they were at home that night. The prosecution case rested partly on a grainy video of the felling recovered from Graham’s phone, with metadata placing it at the tree, and on evidence that his Range Rover had been near the site.
At sentencing on 15 July 2025, Mrs Justice Lambert gave each man four years and three months, with six months to run concurrently for the damage to Hadrian’s Wall. She said the pair had acted with “sheer bravado” and had “revelled in the media coverage” that followed. Prosecutors described them travelling more than 40 minutes from their homes on what the Crown called a “moronic mission”.
Why Is One of the Men Already Out of Prison?
Adam Carruthers was released in April 2026 under the Home Detention Curfew scheme, which allows some prisoners to serve part of a sentence at home under an electronic tag.
ITV News Tyne Tees, reporting the release in April 2026, said Carruthers, by then 33, had spent about 10 months behind bars. The decision was taken by the governor of the prison holding him, following a risk assessment, rather than by a court. Under the scheme he wears a tag and must be at his registered address for between nine and roughly twelve hours a day.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said that anyone released on Home Detention Curfew “faces strict licence conditions and must be tagged”, and that “those who break the rules can be returned to prison”. At sentencing, Mrs Justice Lambert had told both men they would serve 40 per cent of the term in custody and the rest on licence in the community; the curfew scheme can bring a release forward from that point.
Daniel Graham, 40 by 2026, was still serving his sentence when Carruthers was released. As of September 2026, no similar release had been publicly reported for Graham.
Is the Sycamore Gap Tree Growing Back?
Yes. The stump has produced living shoots in three consecutive growing seasons, and the National Trust confirmed the third of those in May 2026.
The first shoots appeared at the base of the stump in August 2024, eleven months after the felling, and the National Trust has counted 25 of them around the stump. Separately, seed and material recovered from the fallen tree were propagated at the charity’s Plant Conservation Centre, where the first seedlings sprouted on 8 March 2024. King Charles III received one of those seedlings in May 2024 for planting at Windsor Great Park.
The regrowth is fragile. On 30 October 2025 the National Trust and Northumberland National Park Authority placed protective netting, forming a cage, over the stump, after the shoots reached the existing fence and visitors left tributes and climbed onto the wood. Both bodies ask people to keep off the bare soil around the stump and not to touch the shoots.
Will It Ever Be One Tree Again?
Not in the shape it had. The National Trust has said it intends to leave all of the shoots growing for several years before deciding how to manage them, so the likely outcome is several stems rising from the old stump rather than a single trunk standing in the notch.
Where Did the Wood Go?
The largest surviving section of the trunk now stands upright inside The Sill, about two miles from where the tree grew.
The National Trust gave that section to the Northumberland National Park Authority, which commissioned a permanent installation called “Sycamore Gap: Coming Home”. It was unveiled on Thursday 10 July 2025 and opened to the public the next morning, Friday 11 July 2025, at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre in Bardon Mill.
The artist Charlie Whinney and the Creative Communities CIC collective set the trunk upright and ringed it with three oak benches, from which steam-bent wood rises into a canopy shaped like a giant sycamore leaf. Messages sent in by the public after the felling were cut into veneers of ash, oak and walnut and worked into the piece. Entry is free, and visitors are invited to touch the trunk.
What Is Being Built in the Tree’s Memory?
A UK-wide artwork called “The People’s Tree” is under way, due for completion by September 2027.
The National Trust announced on 23 May 2026 that Helix Arts, based in North Shields, and George King Architects, based in London, had won the commission. Their proposal treats the tree’s legacy as something shared across the country rather than fixed to one spot, and includes:
- Public recordings: people across the UK contribute reflections on trees and nature.
- A digital soundtrack: composed by scanning the growth rings of the felled tree.
- Exhibitions and workshops: staged in four directions out from Sycamore Gap.
- A sound sculpture: sited along Hadrian’s Wall and holding a time capsule.
The public participation phase was expected to begin in summer 2026.
The 49 Trees of Hope
The National Trust also grew 49 saplings from the tree’s seed, one for each foot of its height when it fell, and gave them away after receiving nearly 500 applications. Recipients include Henshaw Church of England Primary School, the closest school to Sycamore Gap, a bereavement project called Tina’s Haven in East Durham, a memorial planting in south Bristol known as Fergus’s Tree, and all 15 of the UK’s national parks. The saplings were due to be planted out in the winter of 2025/26.
What Sycamore Gap Looks Like in September 2026
As of 17 September 2026, the site is a fenced and netted stump with green shoots inside it, sitting in the dip beside Hadrian’s Wall where the tree once stood.
The location remains open, free and reached on foot. Most walkers start at the Steel Rigg car park and follow the Hadrian’s Wall Path east. There is no tree to photograph, and the National Trust asks visitors to stay off the bare soil ringing the stump, because compaction and handling both threaten the regrowth.
The most recent publicly reported developments are Carruthers’s release in April 2026 and the creative commission announced on 23 May 2026.
Sycamore Gap Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Late 19th century | The tree is planted in the gap beside Hadrian’s Wall, linked to the landowner John Clayton |
| 1991 | It appears in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves |
| 27–28 September 2023 | The tree is felled overnight with a chainsaw |
| 8 March 2024 | First seedlings sprout from recovered seed at the National Trust’s Plant Conservation Centre |
| August 2024 | Shoots appear at the base of the stump |
| 9 May 2025 | Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers are found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court |
| 11 July 2025 | “Sycamore Gap: Coming Home” opens to the public at The Sill |
| 15 July 2025 | Both men are sentenced to four years and three months |
| 30 October 2025 | Protective netting is placed over the stump |
| April 2026 | Carruthers is released on Home Detention Curfew |
| May 2026 | A third year of shoots is confirmed, and “The People’s Tree” commission is announced |
Frequently Asked Questions
How Old Was the Sycamore Gap Tree?
About 150 years, according to the National Trust, which links its planting to the 19th-century landowner John Clayton. Some news reports put it at 200 or 300 years, and a sketch dated 18 October 1832 has been cited as evidence it was older. It stood 49 feet tall when it was cut down.
Can You Still Visit Sycamore Gap?
Yes. The site is open to the public, free of charge, and reached on foot along the Hadrian’s Wall Path, most often from the Steel Rigg car park. Visitors find a protected stump rather than a tree.
What Film Was the Sycamore Gap Tree In?
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, released in 1991. It is often called the Robin Hood Tree as a result, and the film is much of the reason it was known outside Britain.
How Was the Sycamore Gap Tree Valued at £622,191?
Through CAVAT, the Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees system, which Forestry England has explained works by calculating a unit value for every square centimetre of the tree’s stem. That figure appeared on the criminal damage charge relating to the tree; the separate charge covering Hadrian’s Wall was valued at £1,144.
