Hugh

The Yew was associated with Samhain and Rebirth. It sprouts up branches from the ground making it difficult to see where it starts and ends, it is an evergreen and can live up to 9500 years. Ironically, like Samhain, now it is linked with death because it is found in graveyards and is poisonous.

Yews have soft dark needles, twisted gnarly trunks and flaky bark. The male trees produce cones, the females produce red berries. Yew was used for wands and ogham staves for memory aids. 

One of the five sacred trees brought from the Otherworld when dividing Ireland in five provinces, in Brehon Laws, it is one of the Seven Chieftain Trees. Ownership of a yew-tree is the cause of a great battle in the twelfth century tale, ‘Yew Tree of the Disputing Sons’. In the love story of Baile and Ailinn, Baile dies of grief for the beautiful Ailinn. When he is buried, a yew-tree grew from his grave, and ‘the likeness of his head was in the branches’. 

In The Wooing of Etain, Eochaid searched for her for a year and a day. Finally, he sought the help of his druid, Dallahd who made four rods of yew and inscribed them with Ogham and then discovered that Etain was in Bri Leith, with Midir.