SCIENTISTS have found a 550-year-old Scots Pine - the oldest in the country - growing in a Highland glen, it was revealed yesterday.
Tests at the Roslin Laboratories, near Edinburgh, have confirmed the tree, discovered by scientists working on a research project in Glen Falloch, Glen Avon, Glen Einig, and Glen Loyne, is ''at least 550 years old and still growing''.
The medieval Scots Pine was found by Forestry Commission researcher Chris Nixon in one of the glens, and he confirmed yesterday that he had also found seven others ''at least 500 years old''.
He estimates the oldest tree took root as a sapling 50 years before Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic, in 1492, and was only 10ft and struggling to survive on the exposed rocky hillside in 1587, when Mary Queen of Scots was executed. But by the time Bonnie Prince Charlie had been defeated at Culloden, in 1745, it had grown to 40ft.
Mr Nixon said: ''We carried out some routine tests on the trees but were absolutely amazed when the results came back. These confirmed that the trees are at least 500 years old, and the oldest is at least 550 years old.
''Previously we had thought Scots Pines only lived for about 350 years. Now we are not sure how long they do live, because these trees are still growing.''
Their age was revealed scientifically after researchers carried out a series of test bores, which do not damage the trees, but allow them to be accurately dated.
''Because of the age and the importance of these trees we will not be revealing exactly where they are or which one is the oldest. But each tree has now been checked and numbered and will be monitored regularly in the future,'' added Mr Nixon.
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