With more than 200,000 acres of woodlands, which include more champion trees than anywhere else in the UK, Perthshire is Big Tree Country. Together these create Scotland's most spectacular trees and woodlands.
Forget-me-not flowers cover the woodland floor in the early spring.
The Birnam Oak and its neighbour the Birnam Sycamore (further down) are thought to be the sole surviving trees of the great forest that once straddled the banks and hillsides of the River Tay. This forest is celebrated in Shakespeare's Macbeth as the famous Birnam Wood.
Giant sycamore maples greet you on the way to the ancient oak tree further down the road.
Bluebells are also present among the giant trees.
The Birnam Oak is old, a living relic of Birnam Wood, the medieval forest that once grew along the banks of the river Tay.
The Oak’s exact age is not known but as its girth is around seven metres, it’s likely to be at least 600 years old so was almost certainly mature when Shakespeare is said to have visited Perthshire in 1589. The wood was immortalised in his play about the Scottish king Macbeth.
The Oak supports a range of lodgers. Fungi grow on the roots and other areas of the tree, and lichens and mosses live on its bark. Birds and mammals feed on its acorns and its leaves provide a feast for insects.
It's home to around 300 different insects and provides food and shelter for more living creatures than any other European tree.
