These are the 'Nearly Home Trees' (actually a hill called Cookworthy Knapp) and they appear on your left as you drive down the A30 near Lifton in Devon. As soon as you pass them you see the sign that says Kernow a'gas dynergh – Welcome to Cornwall.
The clump of 140 beech trees has inspired many works of art over the years - just do a Google image search for 'Nearly Home Trees' and you'll see what I mean.
The reason they mean so much to the Cornish is, I suspect, that many of us have had to leave the Duchy through no choice of our own. As I've written about before, Cornwall is one of the poorest places in the UK, has the highest levels of child poverty, some of the highest house prices, has a local economy that's almost entirely based on tourism and many shops, reastaurants and tourist attractions don't stay open for 52 weeks a year. Most jobs are seasonal and poorly paid and your chances of getting on the property ladder are slim. Things are tough all over the UK for young people, but it's especially hard in Cornwall where there's no real rental market. Anything affordable that comes onto the market is immediately snapped up as a holiday let or second home and then sits empty for large chunks of the year. And it doesn't help that every night there seems to be a program on TV about lovely Cornwall. Never lovely Dorset or lovely South Wales or lovely East Riding of Yorkshire. It's always Cornwall and these shows serve no function other than to act as a middle class property show.
Like most teenagers, even back in the 1970s, I knew I'd need to leave Cornwall if I wanted a half-decent chance at a career. Nearly all of my best friends migrated South-east with me and we're still mates today. But this does mean that many of us suffer with a condition which, in the Cornish language, is called hireth. There's no real equivalent word in English. It means a kind of deep melancholy and longing to be back home while knowing that you never can.
So that's why these trees are so significant to us. To be honest, as soon as I pass by them I still have another 65-70 miles to drive to get down to the end of Cornwall I'm from. But that doesn't metter.
I'm nearly home.
The trees, also known as Cornwall Beyond, Grandma's Trees, or the Coming Home Trees, are known to locals as Unicorn's wood or Fairy Wood. It's believed that they were planted sometime around 1900 and there are various legends and stories as to why.
One of the most romantic rumours was that the plantation was constructed by a farmer in memory of his late wife.
Some say that this is why the aerial view of the copse looks to be in the shape of a heart. Well, if that was the intention, they've grown out of shape now.
Other claims suggest that the trees were intended to be a landscape feature to mark the northern edge of the Lifton Park Estate or as cover for pheasants.
Another local name, the Trafalgar Clump, suggests that they commemorate Nelson's great victory but, if so, it must have been celebrating the centenary as the battle took place in 1805.
One rather smart suggestion claims that trees were planted in clumps on hills all over the country by cattle drovers, to mark water sources so they knew where they could take their animals to drink.
Or, perhaps, the trees mark an ancient burial site for a leper colony. No one is sure.
But I'm sure that they bring me joy every time I see them.
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