Yew Bowl. Ref: IWT.030

Description

The yew is a native Irish tree and may be found in old woods, although often seen in the artificial surroundings of estates or churchyards. It is an evergreen conifer with dramatic dark foliage and red berries. The seed and leaves are poisonous to most livestock which gave rise to the notion that they were often planted in graveyards to keep livestock out. Drooping branches of old yew trees can root and form new trunks where they touch the ground, thus the yew came to symbolise death and resurrection in Celtic culture. It is a wonderful timber to turn, with dramatic colour differences between the sap and heart wood, indeed it has been said that all the colours of the rainbow can sometimes be seen in the timber of yew. They can live for hundreds of years and I was extremely lucky to get a large quantity from a farm just outside Ardee in Co. Louth, where this example comes from.