The Bicycle Tree

Almost a century ago, a young boy from the village Brig o’ Turk, Scotland, left his bicycle against a tree in the yard of a blacksmith. The next day he was off to fight in World War I.

He never returned.

And so the bicycle stayed there, and the tree grew. Eventually it absorbed the bicycle, and it can still be seen today, almost completely eaten by the tree.



And now the villagers are trying to protect their iron-eating tree, which has also absorbed a ship's anchor and chain, and a bridle bit, all objects left there by the blacksmith over the years.

Something stuck me about this tree. I guess it reminded me about the Giving Tree, but it's kind of a Taking tree. The boy never returned from the war but the tree took his bicycle, and held on to it, for all to see years and years after he'd gone.

I don't know, I guess it's kind of mythological. Kind of nice.