'It felt personal': Si King on avoiding Sycamore Gap tree felling site until now

When the Sycamore Gap tree was illegally cut down in September 2023, TV chef and Hairy Biker Si King was among those devastated by its wanton destruction. Such was his anger, it took nearly two years and the conviction of two men before he could bring himself to visit the site again.

He takes several deep breaths, steeling himself, then walks slowly up to the stump.

Inside the fence surrounding the remains of the sycamore, several green shoots are growing.

"Dear me," Si says simply, before turning away, too overwhelmed by the "big yawning gap" in the landscape.

"I've put off coming to see it, because I didn't want to," he says.

Si inspects the scars left by a chainsaw blade.

"Absolutely mindless," he adds.

On the morning of 28 September 2023, when news that the much-loved landmark had been felled spread globally, Si was among those expressing their fury.

"You've just murdered a sentinel of time and elemental spirit of Northumberland," he raged on social media. "For whatever warped reason you've done it, it's shocking."

The TV chef, best known as one half of the Hairy Bikers, had to postpone filming that day because of his "visceral reaction" to the news.

In his direct message to those responsible - a 44 second clip that's had almost two million views on X - he furiously ranted that he hoped they had a conscience.

Coming from the north-east of England, where the tree had grown for more than 100 years, Si knew its importance.

"There was a magic and majesty to it," he says, calling it an "absolute exclamation mark of who we are in this part of the world".

Si had been sent the news of its felling in a text message by a close friend, who had come to cherish the tree following a personal tragedy.

He hoped she was mistaken, but links to news articles sent in follow-up messages brought the dreaded confirmation.

Overcome with anger, he had to record his condemnation video several times because of the swearing in the original versions.

Following a third, expletive-free attempt, he asked fellow Hairy Biker and best friend Dave Myers if it was acceptable to be shared with their one million followers on X.

"I was absolutely raging," Si says.

"That level of vandalism and brutal bitterness was beyond my comprehension.

"I can't comprehend the mindset that would just do that. I don't understand that character and personality. That was just plain nasty.

"It felt so personal."

That sentiment was shared by millions both in the UK and around the world.

Sycamore Gap was the scene of marriage proposals, wedding photographs and somewhere grieving families scattered ashes.

For Si, it was a "special place" that provided moments of "peace", "solace" and "counsel."

It was also somewhere he visited when "in crisis."

Five months after the tree was cut down, his on-screen partner and "best mate" Dave died at the age of 66, two years after revealing he had cancer.

Had the tree still been there, Si says he would have gone there to reflect on his loss, "given the year everybody involved with the Hairy Bikers has had".

However, with only the stump remaining, it was "too much" for him to visit in the immediate aftermath of Dave's death.

On one occasion he drove to the road adjacent to Sycamore Gap, but his emotions halted his return and he "looked away", unable to bring himself to stop his car.

It was only in June, after Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, both from Cumbria, had been found guilty of chopping down the tree, that he says he felt ready to return, accompanied by a BBC film crew for the documentary The Sycamore Gap: From Roots to Ruin.

"It's quite difficult to put into words," he says, as he surveys the scene.

"I'm an emotional human being and it's sorely missed - tragically so."

Sycamore Gap had extra poignancy to Si because of another personal tragedy.

The close friend who had texted him on the day to say the tree had been cut down had lost her son when he was just 18.

Following the teenager's death, Sycamore Gap became a natural place for them to gather and grieve.

"The impact of that, because we were all very close, was enormous," Si says.

The peacefulness of Sycamore Gap was "of solace" to them all, so much so the tree was depicted on the young man's gravestone.

"Sycamore Gap is that important," Si says.

"It's not just a tree."

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