Craigends Yew
remarkable tree in Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK
The Craigends Yew (NS4199566134) is an ancient European layering yew (Taxus baccata) growing next to the River Gryffe in what were the grounds of the Craigends Estate, Houston in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Estimates put its age at around 500 to 700 years old and it is one of the largest and oldest examples of a heritage layering yew in Scotland.
The tree
The Ancient Tree Inventory records the Craigends Yew as tree number 31486. Layering yews differ from the standard growth form in that their branches grow in a pendulous fashion and upon contacting the soil level they root, a process called 'layering' and they may also send up new vertical stems. The central trunk will eventually die and the clones will continue to grow resulting in an increasing circumference and eventually a hollow centre. As layering is not a process involving sexual reproduction the new plants are clones of the parent tree and all of the new individuals formed have identical DNA with each other and the parent.
Estimates for the tree's age are for 600 to 700 years. The clonal grove has achieved a second row of branch layering and the crown has reached a circumference of 328ft or 100m. The parent tree has a girth of 27ft or 8.86m at 30cm.
The tree has a number of epiphytes such as ferns, ivy, liverworts, lichens and mosses that are encouraged by the high humidity maintained by the leaf cover of this evergreen species, supplemented by occasional flooding by the river.
“Craigends Yew” enters the record as remarkable tree in Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Craigends, remarkable and tree can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Craigends Yew” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Craigends, remarkable and tree provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q47533854. Authority coordinates are 55.862, -4.526. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Craigends Yew”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Craigends Yew primary sources, Craigends Yew archive and Craigends research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Craigends Yew”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Craigends Yew” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.