Balerno is a village-suburb at the western edge of Edinburgh, where the Water of Leith runs out of the Pentland Hills and the built edge of the city meets open moorland. The Water of Leith walkway, running eastward from Balerno through Juniper Green and Currie to the city, is one of the greenest linear green spaces in Edinburgh — willows, alder, elder, hawthorn and bramble lining the banks for miles. The Pentland Hills Regional Park is immediately south of Balerno, with heather moor and gorse at the top of the village streets, and the rough grass and wildflower verges of the Water of Leith corridor give bees an extended season that most Edinburgh suburbs cannot match.
Collectors attend swarms along the Water of Leith walkway banks and the elder and hawthorn scrub at the Balerno and Juniper Green sections, on the Pentland Hills gorse fringe above the village, in the garden walls and outbuildings of the older village core around Balerno High Street and Marchbank Road, and in the eaves of the 1970s estate houses at the hill edge.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CA6 4HN· approx. 109 km
Visit websiteNE65 9QH· approx. 126 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 130 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring comes later than southern England but catches up quickly on horse chestnut and sycamore in the Meadows, Inverleith Park and Holyrood. The lime avenues of the New Town produce a classic pale, mineral June flow; Blackford Hill, Arthur's Seat and the Pentlands add gorse and broom. Bramble and rosebay willowherb are heavy on every disused railway and quarry corridor. Coastal sea-aster and sea-pink on the Forth shore at Cramond, and a strong ivy flow on Old Town walls, close a surprisingly long urban season.
More on beekeeping in City of EdinburghReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
