Ordnance Survey Book, 1856:
“In the 1830s much excavation had to be made in the inner part of Aberdeen Harbour and in doing so a large Oak Tree was found within 150 yards of the Trades Hospital, which was near the bottom of Exchange Street. It was within a few inches of the Surface and some people remembered seeing part of a branch of it projecting above the ground in the edge of the Trinity Inch. When taken out it was found to be 20 ft 2 inches in circumference, and the trunk was 6 ft 6 inches in length from the foot to the first branch. The Tree was lying horizontally from South-east to North-west. It was not much decayed and did not seem to have lain very long where it was found.”
1845 New Statistical Account for Aberdeen:
There were anciently many oak trees in the Forest of Birse, and as that Parish is liable to heavy rains, causing floods in the Feugh when the wind is in the south-east in Autumn, the Tree may have come from the Forest of Birse.
The Oak Tree was set up near the then Inches (now Commercial Road/Quay) at the far end of Regents Road in 1836, where it stood till it was found to be somewhat in the way. It suffered from a fire in an adjoining timber yard and was removed to the Duthie Park:
