The Ormiston Yew
On the 21st February 1928 the brother secretary read out a letter to the lodge which was received from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, enquiring if the Lodge had any details of any manuscripts or curios, that Lodge Caldercruix St John may have in its possession. After discussing the matter in open lodge it was agreed to describe to Grand Lodge details of a Mallet presented to the Lodge by Bro. Col Peter Spence R.W.P. G.D.M., which was made from the Yew tree under which John Knox had preached.
Bro Col Peter Spence was one of the principle brethren who performed the ceremony of consecration and erection of Lodge Caldercruix St John 1314 five years previous in 1923.
As early as the 15th century the famous Yew tree from which our prized mallet was made was recognized as a local landmark: a parchment dated 1474, found among some old papers belonging to the Earl of Hopetoun, had been signed under the yew tree.
The famous religious reformer John Knox who was born in nearby Haddington preached his early sermons within the secluded interior of the yew’s evergreen canopy. It was here along with his influential mentor, George Wishart, that he sowed the seeds of the Reformation which was ultimately to sweep throughout Scotland.
This famous yew from which our mallet originated has weeping branches which radiate out from one solid central trunk and take root where they touch the ground, encircling the tree in an ever-extending fringe of growth.
The inner chamber formed by the layered branches and dense foliage creates a spacious, natural cathedral of arching limbs. The huge central trunk measures about 23 feet (about 7 meters) in girth. Records of measurement over the past 160 years suggest a very slow rate of growth, and it is possible that the tree could be ten centuries old.
The Great Yew of Ormiston is still standing and continues to grow to this day and can be visited in a private residential development close to the ruins of Ormiston Hall, Ormiston in East Lothian.
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