News station UTV Northern Ireland did a great report yesterday on a remarkable and decidedly man-made phenomenon that various airplane passengers have noticed in recent weeks: a 300-foot-long Celtic cross made up of thousands of trees that is only discernible from above, due to the differing coloration of the surrounding trees.

Sadly, the cross is the handiwork of a man who is no longer around to enjoy it. He was a forester from County Donegal named Liam Emmery, and he died in 2010 at the age of 51 from complications after an accident. The accident left Emmery with some slight brain damage—his widow believes that this factor explains why even his closest relatives hardly heard anything about the project from him.

The effect has been visible for several years, but Ireland has been experiencing a very dry autumn this year, and that has made the cross especially easy to discern, with the yellow Celtic cross nestled in a field of spruce green.

“We’re going to be appreciating this for the next sixty or seventy years,” horticulturist Gareth Austin told UTV. As Gareth Wilkinson of UTV put it, Emmery singlehandedly created “a new landmark in this majestic, mystical landscape.”

You can see the UTV Northern Ireland report here.
 
via Atlas Obscura