Dublin's Bench-eating Tree

Among the many wonders of Dublin, Ireland, is a tree that is slowly and surely devouring a park bench.

In 1800, construction began on the elegant structure on Dublin’s North Side that would house the Honourable Society of King’s Inns where, to this day, many of Ireland’s barristers receive their training.A fine Regency-style stone building requires appropriate landscaping.  Among the features that were added to the grounds along Constitution Hill were a number of London plane trees (similar to an American sycamore), and several cast iron park benches where people could sit and admire the view.

Ah, but the landscape architects of two centuries ago probably did not anticipate how one of those trees and one of those benches would become inseparably linked.  In fact, they’ve become a much-photographed tourist attraction known as “the Hungry Tree.”

As the tree’s trunk grew and expanded, it began to envelope the bench.  The girth of its trunk is about 3.5 meters. In the decade I’ve been coming back and forth to Dublin, there’s been a notable incursion as, year-by-year, the tree swallows up more of the bench.

Back in my Ottawa home, our community association has organized a “Neighbourwoods” tree inventory,   Specially-trained teams if volunteers measure and record the trees growing throughout the community to promote the planning, conservation, management and stewardship of our urban forest.  In their surveys of the back yards of the hood, it has not yet been reported they have discovered a bench-eating tree. 

But who knows?  Given enough time, perhaps our neighbourhood will have its own arboreal tourist attraction.