Misfortune After Harming a Lone Hawthorn
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
Some British and Irish traditions warned that harming a particular old or solitary hawthorn could bring misfortune. Such stories are strongest when attached to an individual tree, mound, well or other locally significant place.
This should not be expanded into a rule that hawthorn was never cut. Hawthorn hedges were routinely trimmed, laid and managed. The folkloric caution often concerned a particular conspicuous thorn rather than the species as a whole.
Source trail: regional hawthorn and fairy-lore traditions discussed alongside Woodland Trust and Royal Horticultural Society material in the related Journal article.
Related Journal record: Hawthorn in British Folklore.