A HIKER said she may have been the last person to see the Sycamore Gap tree before it was cut down.
Alice Whysall, 33, is from Brampton and had been hiking Hadrian's Wall for several days before she visited Sycamore Gap on a rainy Wednesday evening (September 27).
"I was really focused on getting to the next place because I'd been walking so long in the rain I didn't even realise where I was until I looked up," she said.
Alice, a regular hiker in the Lakes and Scotland, is a kitchen gardener at Netherby Hall in Longtown, Carlisle for the businesses' Michelin-starred pub.
Alice was at Sycamore Gap from 6pm-6.30pm.
The iconic tree was felled overnight between Wednesday and Thursday (September 28) in what police believe was a deliberate act of vandalism.
"When I was at Sycamore Gap I thought it was an amazing milestone because I'd been walking for four days and it was a satisfying milestone to be there. I nearly didn't stop and take a picture but I thought 'no, you have to'.
"This was my first proper thru-hike on my own, so I was over the moon I was there."
Thru-hiking is the act of hiking an established long-distance trail end-to-end continuously.
"In the morning I had no idea it had happened. I got out walking around 7.30am and nearly went up to take another photo [of Sycamore Gap], mine were not that great, because it was raining and so dull."
Alice said she thought 'someone was pulling her leg' when she heard the news of the tree's felling.
"I couldn't believe it, I thought someone was having a joke with me because I had no idea. It blew my mind that I was there, went to bed and it was gone."
Alice said the tree's felling impacted not only the community but the wider world.
"As I was walking after I found out, I told people what had happened, nobody really knew because they'd not been checking the news."
Sycamore Gap was located at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hadrian's Wall and was estimated to have been approximately 300 years old.
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