Bee swarm in Cramond? Help is a minute away.

Cramond is a historic coastal village at the western edge of Edinburgh where the River Almond meets the Firth of Forth, retaining a character unlike any other Edinburgh suburb. The village core of whitewashed cottages, the restored Cramond Kirk and the remains of a Roman fort sit at the tidal estuary mouth; Cramond Island is accessible at low tide across a causeway. The River Almond walkway runs inland from the village through mature broadleaf woodland of oak, ash, sycamore and wild cherry, with hawthorn, elder and bramble along the banks, to the Grotto Bridge and beyond. Coastal sea-aster and sea-pink on the Forth foreshore and the meadow grassland of the Cramond foreshore parkland extend the forage well into autumn.

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.