Lisa Hendrix

A magical lovers’ bower hidden with the hollow formed by a cluster of young oaks grown together around the mother stump—sounds like a lovely figment of my imagination, doesn’t it?

But it isn’t.  Well, mostly not, anyway.

In the tiny surviving remnant of Sherwood Forest stands a tree as old as the Robin Hood legend itself, the Major Oak. At approximately 800-1000 years of age, and with a girth of some 33 feet around a hollow center, it has long been believed to be the tree in which Robin and all his Merry Men hid from the Sheriff of Nottingham.  The Major Oak has an odd, twisted shape that some say comes from it being a fusion of several trees. The interior of the tree isn’t as open as I described, but the tree is 700+ years older, too; the trees would be much thicker now. The one thing I totally fudged was the floor inside the hollow. In reality, it’s  lumpy and hard and would be a pretty uncomfortable place to make love. Fortunately, I write fiction.

The image to the left is a drawing of the oak made in approximately 1790 by Major Hayman Rooke, after whom the oak was named (before Maj. Rooke came along, it was called the Cockpen Oak because it was used to hold caged fighting cocks).  There’s a great collection of photos of the oak  HERE, including one with the support struts removed digitally, so you can see its true grandeur

And thanks to the BBC, you can enjoy a real treat:  a 360º tour of the inside of the Major Oak!   (While you’re there, check out the “Hide in Sherwood Forest” link just below the tour to see an example of the thick ferns that Marian and Robin hid in at the very beginning of Chaper 1.)

QUESTION:  HAVE YOU EVER FOUND A MAGICAL PLACE IN THE WOODS? SHARE A LITTLE PIECE OF THE MAGIC IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.