jolly in the woods and found this !

[jayman]

while out with the family and a big crowd of kids (my own and nephews) made some muhasive swings with climbing kit i came across this, its about 5 meters to the break off point and the rest of the tree landed about 2 foot from the path ! there's some fungi might be "Daldinia concentrica" just thought it was strange it snapped at that hight and quite a clean break !

[RobRainford]

No pics of the fruiting bodies?

 

It looks like a brittle fracture which is why the break was so clean

[blazer]

After a big storm a few years ago a healthy tall beech also broke off at say 5 m up and the top landed up-side down - break pointing up. Looked the work of an angry giant.