The Oak Tree in Folklore

Oak was one of the most revered trees of the Celtic people and is featured in many stories about gods, goddesses and mythological or legendary characters – although in Scotland the Rowan and Hazel were thought to be even more powerful than the mighty Oak.

The Oak has always had a link to the mysterious plant of the Druids – mistletoe. Mistletoe will grow on the top of oak trees and it was believed that the seed was placed there by a bolt of lightening sent by the thunder god Woden, probably because lightening is liable to hit or be attracted to tall Oak trees.

Sacred fires of Oak wood were, and still are, burnt on Beltane (May 1st) and at the Mid Summer and Mid Winter Solstices.
As the Holly is sacred to the waning year the Oak is sacred to the waxing year and in pagan cultures it is the Oak king that is worshipped at the summer solstice.

Oak groves were the traditional places of worship for the ancient Celts. When the early Christians arrived in Britain they generally took over these sites of ancient worship so we find that many of the early Christian churches and monasteries were built using the timbre from these ancient groves.
St Columba was said to love and respect Oak trees and avoided felling them whenever possible, although he did build an Oak chapel on Iona using wood from the great Oak woods on Mull.
On a Thursday (Columba’s day) people from the highlands of Scotland used to bake special cakes using oak wood as fuel.

Oak has been used throughout the ages for many purposes from building boats, homes and places of worship to being used in tanning leather and being burnt to produce charcoal (we have an old oak wood next to Cashel which was coppiced to produce charcoal.) Many woods in Argyll and the surrounding areas were coppiced for charcoal making for the iron smelting industry, which means that these woods were properly managed and therefore are still there for all to see today.
Its bark and acorns have been used to produce black and brown dye, whilst its galls or oak apples were used to produce ink
Oak is said to have a host of healing qualities and its tannin is supposed to be0 highly antiseptic. The bark can be made into a tonic and other drinks produced using oak trees include acorn coffee, leaf tea and leaf wine