The Iron Tree

Having fled south from Cowslip’s insane death cult, the rabbits come to ‘the great field’ at the base of Watership Down’s north facing scarp. It is by English standards, extremely large. So much so that it is sometimes divided up into different types of crop.

The field’s north-western corner sits next to a crossroads. One lane runs north to Ecchinswell, south up to the ridge dividing Watership Down from Hare Warren Down and on to Cole Henley. The other lane is busier, coming from Old Burghclere in the west to Kingsclere in the east. It is on this latter road—roughly at the midway point of the great field’s length—that an unsigned turning marks the entrance to the lane that leads up to Nuthanger Farm.

This ‘great field’ is crossed by a line of electrical pylons that come in from Kingsclere to the north-west and exit in the south-west corner, before ascending onto Hare Warren Down and heading due west over the A34. Nerds will be keen to know the power line transmits electricity at 132kV and runs between the Andover and Thatcham Grid Substations.

Map of the pylon line; individual pylons in red.

It is popular for visitors to Watership Down and the surrounding landscape to assume that the iron tree is the one midway up the field’s width (official designation PA-65), directly in line with the beech hanger on the Down and the foot of the lane to Nuthanger Farm. It feels right because of its position, and also because in the book’s climax Dandelion and Blackberry lure the farm dog Bob up to Watership Down. It makes sense to travel in a straight line because it’s the quickest route.

However, my contention is that PA-65 is not the specific iron tree. Rather, I think ‘iron tree’ is merely the rabbits’ noun for a pylon. There seems to more than one pylon mentioned across the story.

Fiver and the Black Rabbit of Inlé pass the base of a pylon in the Bright Eyes vision sequence.

The first reference to an iron tree is in Chapter Eighteen, Watership Down, when the rabbits, entering the large field at the base of the Down ‘heard the unnatural humming of a pylon in the summer air; and had actually gone beneath it, on Fiver’s assurance that it could do them no harm.’ As I have ascertained in the previous post, we know the rabbits would have come from the north-west. It makes sense for the rabbits to have passed under the pylon designated PA-64, which is the south-western neighbour to the one in the middle of the field. It is also possible they could have passed under PA-63, at the western edge of the field amidst trees and undergrowth.

Next, in Chapter Forty Four, A Message From El-Ahrairah, Hazel tells Dandelion and Blackberry:

‘you come with me. You’re to go straight up out of this run and through the trees to the down. Then northwards, over the edge and down to the fields. Don’t stop for anything. You’ll go faster than I shall. Wait for me by the iron tree at the bottom.’

In Chapter Forty Five, Nuthanger Farm Again, Hazel, Dandelion and Blackberry subsequently emerge in ‘the belt of hawthorn and dogwood where the pylon stood’. The only pylon which stands in a belt of woodland here is PA-63 at the western end of the field. 

The pylon line from between PA-63 and PA-64. August 2025.

After crossing the field, Blackberry is left to wait on the nearside verge opposite the narrow lane up to Nuthanger Farm as part of Hazel’s plan to lure Bob the dog up to the Down. Blackberry says he ‘may have to run,’ whilst being chased by the dog, ‘from here to the iron tree’. But which pylon?

To work this out, we first have to know where Blackberry entered the field. Chapter Forty Seven, The Sky Suspended, explains how this was achieved:

‘Blackberry hopped deliberately into the road and sat up. Seeing him, the dog yelped and thrust its weight against the hedge. Blackberry ran slowly along the road towards a pair of gates that stood opposite each other further down. The dog stayed level with him. As soon as he was sure that it had seen the gate on its own side and meant to go to it, Blackberry turned and climbed the bank. Out in the stubble he waited for the dog to reappear.’

Though there are no longer any gates ‘further down’ the road, Google Street View displays two blocked gaps in the hedgerows from an image taken in 2010. An aerial image from 1948 shows the same field boundaries in place. The southernmost of the gateways is in straight alignment with pylon PA-64.

We are told that Bob follows ‘one of the rows of threshed straw’ up towards the pylon line whilst Blackberry, ‘sheltering behind a parallel row, kept level with [him].’ This suggests the straw rows are aligned north to south and would have taken the animals close to, or directly under, PA-64.

The final reference to the pylons comes in Chapter Fifty, And Last. Speaking of Kehaar to Holly, Hazel says, ‘He’ll turn up one of these days, when the storms begin on that Big Water of his. He can take a message to Campion as quickly as you’d run to the iron tree and back.’ It isn’t clear which iron tree he is referring to. 

The old gateways on the Kingsclere road. The pylon on the right is the one in line with Nuthanger Farm, PA-65.

The film places a lot more emphasis on the pylons than the novel. One of them features in Fiver’s visionary sequence, Bright Eyes and all, after Hazel has been shot.

The original book has Dandelion and Blackberry luring Bob the dog across the great field and up onto Watership Down. In the movie, Blackberry passes a metaphorical baton to Hyzenthlay at the base of a pylon (probably PA-64 given its proximity to the base of Watership Down) before he hides against one of its legs. You can see poor Blackberry shaking in fear with the dog almost upon him before Hyzenthlay disturbs some partridges and attracts Bob’s attention.

Blackberry heads to ground at the pylon base whilsy Hyzenthlay gets ready to lure the dog up onto the escarpment.

Looking along the pylon line from PA-64.

Looking up inside PA-64.

Fiver’s vision of the same scene, as shown in the film.

Underneath PA-65, looking to PA-64.

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