Crunching through the woodland past imposing Douglas Firs, a folly appears as if by magic at the Hermitage near Dunkeld.

The clearing unveils Ossian’s Hall to the intrepid explorer, itself mysterious and full of surprises, and just past it a crashing waterfall transforms into foam on the black rocks below.

Yet, it is a small felled fir that has been attracting visitors to the National Trust for Scotland site for the past five years, a small wishing tree hammered with dulled pennies in exchange for good health.

“It’s very much in keeping with the original 18th century philosophy whereby you would come across things by surprise,” explains Ben Notley, property manager for the National Trust of Scotland.

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The felled tree was a casualty of a strong gale in December 2011, which blew over numerous Douglas Firs in the woodland.

While the others were cleared away, one blank face slowly became decorated with coins, circling the inner rings of the trunk by passers-by.

Hundreds of coppers, dimes and cents have been driven into the stump. Natasha Price

Nobody knows who began the wishing tree, but the stump, which lies at head-height just past the main attraction of Ossian Hall, has proven popular with some 200,000 tourists each year.

“Every passing tourist does it, there’s a big stone there people use to hammer them in and it’s actually spreading like growth to other felled stumps,” Ben says.

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“It’s mainly pennies and two pennies, the odd 20 pence piece, but there’s quite a few coins from overseas, a lot of foreign visitors seem to love hammering them in.

“We have dimes from America, various cents from Europe and one or two random coins but once they are bashed in you can’t really tell, you just about get a glimpse of what they are. It’s very spectacular.”

Isle Maree Wishing Tree in the Highlands. Anne Burgess

After five years, the Hermitage’s wishing tree has become so laden with coins that other felled stumps have started to be decorated by passing walkers, with Ben estimating that there are now four decorated trees dotted in the woodland.

While Nature may meet man-made metals to create the stunning pieces of artwork at the Hermitage, the origins of wishing trees go back hundreds of years.

On Isle Maree, a small island in the middle of Loch Maree in the Highlands, an oak tree on the island is festooned with coins, after visitors made votive offerings in the hopes of benefiting from the water’s perceived healing powers.

Following a visit by Queen Victoria in 1877, who wrote about the mysterious oak in her published diaries, the tree became an even more popular attraction, though copper poisoning posed a bit of a problem later on.

The legend of the Money Tree also states that coins that fall from it are wishes that will not be granted.

The Wishing Tree at Ardmaddy stands towards the head of the Bealach Gaoithe. Patrick Mackie

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Similarly, a hawthorn tree in Argyll, known for its links with fertility, was also weighted with coins hammered into its bark.

Pennies aren’t the only item associated with offerings in exchange for wishes though – a clootie well in Culloden continues to have visitors offering pieces of cloth which, once decayed, are believed to make an ailment disappear.

Buddhist monastery Samye Ling in the Borders and the Hidden Gardens in Glasgow also have wishing trees, with people invited to tie labels and ribbons with wishes onto the branches.

There is also a legend about a kissing tree. In Scotland, if a young man could drive a nail into a tree with one blow, he earned a kiss from his sweetheart.

Legend states coins that fall from the trees are wishes that will not be granted. Martin

For the Hermitage’s wishing tree though, Ben believes it’s draw may be linked to those wishing for good health, driving coins through the bark and into the wood to rid a wisher of an ailment.

Though he also admits that we cannot ever be truly certain of the original message intended by the money trees.

“I think it’s something to do with you bang a coin into the tree and you pass the disease on from yourself to the tree and if you take a coin out, you get someone else’s disease which is why you don’t take them out,” he says.

“It really is a mystery, which is part of the fun of it.”