Ellon is a market town on the River Ythan in central Aberdeenshire — the main service centre for the farmland plain between Aberdeen and Peterhead. The Ythan valley is one of Aberdeenshire's most productive bee corridors: oilseed rape on the surrounding farmland, hawthorn on the deep field hedges, and willow and alder on the Ythan banks carrying the season from April through to September. The Haddo House estate, five miles to the north-west, adds mature parkland limes and the famous Haddo walled garden to the regional forage, and Fyvie Castle's parkland is within easy flying distance to the north. Ellon's Ythan bridgehead gardens and older stone properties hold reliable swarm populations each May and June.
Collectors attend swarms along the Ythan riverside willows and hawthorn margins from Ellon south to Newburgh, in the oilseed rape field margins of the farmland surrounding the town, in the Haddo House and Pitmedden Garden boundary planting to the north, in the older stone and sandstone properties of Bridge Street and Market Street, and in garden wall cavities and outbuilding eaves throughout the town.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE65 9QH· approx. 234 km
Visit websiteNE12 8EH· approx. 263 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 266 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape on the vast arable belt around Inverurie, Turriff and Ellon is the defining early flow — Scotland's single biggest rape region. Hawthorn and sycamore carry the post-rape period; lime lights Aberdeen's granite streets in June. The heather of Royal Deeside, the Ladder Hills and the Cabrach gives one of the finest and most commercially worked heather honey flows in Britain. Bilberry and hill forage add; a short but real ivy flow on the granite villages finishes the year.
More on beekeeping in AberdeenshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
