Bee swarm in Ardrishaig? Help is a minute away.

Ardrishaig is a small town on the east shore of Loch Fyne at the southern entrance to the Crinan Canal — the nine-mile shortcut that allows yachts to avoid the Mull of Kintyre passage. The canal towpath north to Lochgilphead passes through mixed hedgerow of hawthorn, elder and guelder rose, and the towpath verges carry white clover and meadowsweet on the water margins. The wooded Loch Fyne shore has wild cherry and sycamore in the sheltered corners, and bramble is prolific on the rocky shoreline edges and former farmland at the town margins. The mid-Argyll landscape of the hinterland — improved pasture, alder carr and heather on the higher ground — is accessible from the upper village.

Heather is the defining flow of Argyll — Calluna vulgaris covers the hills, glens and island moors from late July into September, offering one of the longest heather seasons in Scotland. Gorse and broom flower in two flushes — April and again in late summer — on every rocky coastal headland and glen-side. Sycamore is the principal woodland forage tree, prolific in the sheltered sea-loch valleys and estate policies from late April. Bramble is abundant on the lower ground and forest clearings from July. White clover grows on the improved coastal grassland of the Kintyre plain, the Isle of Bute and the Oban hinterland. Cross-leaved heath in the wetter blanket bogs supplements the main heather flow on the islands.