Ifs millénaires de La Haye-de-Routot

La Haye-de-Routot

In front of the church of Notre-Dame, two yews with hollow trunks measure some ten metres in girth (11.56 m and 9.67 m at 1.30 m, measured in 2011 by Krapo arboricole). The eastern one has housed since 1866 a small chapel dedicated to Saint Anne, where hardly anyone prays any more; the western one has held since 1897 an oratory of Notre-Dame de Lourdes, and the candles placed on its altar show that worship continues there. Local tradition gives 1,400 years to one and 1,600 to the other; the intangible cultural heritage inventory record judges these datings uncertain and holds an age of a thousand years to be certain, which naturalists also accept. The trunks have hollowed out with time, as in all old yews. On the evening of every 16 July, a charity confraternity founded in 1496 raises near the yews a pyre of poplars some fifteen metres high in honour of Saint Clair; after the mass, the procession of the brethren carrying the relics passes between the two trees, the parish priest blesses the pyre and it is set alight before a crowd that can reach two thousand people. The site is said to have been registered since 1932, according to Wikipedia, and the two yews have borne the Arbre remarquable de France label since 2001. They are alive, but unequally so: the chapel yew, sprayed with weedkiller in 2013, is described as half dead by Wikipedia, after the regional press, while the oratory yew remains vigorous.

Wikipédia — Ifs de La Haye-de-Routot ↗

Getting there : In the centre of the village, in front of the church of Notre-Dame, between Routot and the forest of Brotonne; free access at all times and free of charge, the chapel and the oratory can be seen from outside. The fire of Saint-Clair is lit on the evening of 16 July, after the mass and the procession of the relics. In the same street, the bread oven and the clog museum open on Sunday afternoons for a good part of the year.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound