The Northumbria Police said Thursday that they had arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of felling the famous tree. In their statement, they did not name the suspect and said they were “keeping an open mind” given the early stages of the investigation.
“People have had their ashes scattered there. People have proposed there. I’ve picnicked there with my wife and kids,” North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll said on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter. “It’s part of our collective soul.”
The fallen tree and stump were circled by police tape Thursday. The Northumberland National Park Authority asked the public not to visit the site in the course of the investigation.
The Woodland Trust named the Sycamore Gap the English Tree of the Year in 2016. When night fell, the tree cast a striking silhouette against the horizon. It grew in a dip along Hadrian’s Wall, the 73-mile stone wall built in A.D. 122 by the Roman Army to mark the Roman Empire’s northwest frontier — a role it kept for three centuries, until the end of Roman rule on the island.
By Thursday afternoon, the iconic site was labeled “Sycamore Stump” on Google Maps.
The National Trust, a U.K. heritage conservation charity that helped look after the tree, said it was “shocked and desperately saddened” by the news and was working to understand what happened and what can be done. “We know just how much this iconic tree is loved locally, nationally and by everyone who has visited,” the organization added.
The tree was believed to have been roughly 300 years old.