Vandals attempted to hack down a beautiful 100-year-old Rowan tree at The Edge last week.
The incident is believed to have occurred on Friday afternoon and the tree was left badly damaged and unsafe so it had to be felled.
Christopher Widger, Countryside Manager at The National Trust, explained "The tree was not completely felled as the culprit appears to have given up their attempt part way through, but it was sufficiently badly damaged to require felling for safety reasons.
"The tree would have died anyway as a result of being 'ringbarked'."
The tree stood in the Pillar Mine area, immediately adjacent to a public right of way, in an area where similar damage occur has occurred in the past.
Two or three years ago, a 200 year old Scots Pine and a few Birch trees were felled illicitly very near to the location of the Rowan.
Christopher Widger added "The real issue for us is not necessarily the loss of one or two trees, though of course we cannot condone such vandalism, but in this case, the safety of the public, which of course is a primary concern for us, was compromised. To leave a tree in a potentially hazardous situation is essentially irresponsible."
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Someone who is mentally deranged, obviously !
Wish we could catch them ....... then we could give them a taste of their own medicine, eh ?