Rowen Ash disease

[flatyre]

A customer has asked me to find out what's attacking her Rowen Ash and if it can be saved. I don't know much about tree diseases so any advice is welcome. Basically a third of the tree has been dead for over a year now, and the bark on the trunk is starting to split as in the photos. The customer had a second Rowan in the garden which died a couple of years ago and was removed. I planted a Red Robin beside the old stump last summer in the hope that it would grow over it and hide it, but it's dying too. Connected or just coincidence?

 

[Kveldssanger]

Are they small fruiting bodies in those peeling bark areas in the bottom image? Silverleaf (Chondrostereum purpureum), maybe?

[Mick Dempsey]

They're a very short lived tree. That one looks mature, maybe it's just had its day.

[flatyre]

the ground is very rocky so it can't be getting much in the way of nutrients, based on that and not wanting to sound like i'm asking how long a piece of string is, what's the average life expectancy of a Rowan normally and one planted in poor ground?

[Thesnarlingbadger]

If the red robin you planted is dying as well I'd be inclined to think it is bad conditions of some sort of fungus (maybe not as I need to lean more in this area). But how are the other plants/trees doing in the area?

[flatyre]

I think everything else in the area is ok but the only other rowen ash in the area are much younger and look healthy enough. As for the red robin, the deer come down from the hills and eat everything at night especially in winter so they might be munching on it, there are plenty of hoof prints in the moss infested grass and droppings.