Leith is Edinburgh's port district — a dense mix of Georgian merchant terraces, Victorian tenements, modern dockside developments and the green corridor of the Water of Leith as it reaches the Firth of Forth. Leith Links, one of the oldest recorded golf grounds in the world, gives bees a wide open sward of clover and dandelion within the tenement streets. The lime trees along Great Junction Street and the Wildlife Garden at Leith Victoria Baths add urban forage, and the Water of Leith walkway's willows, elder and bramble carry the season from April through to a long October ivy flow on the old sandstone walls of the Shore.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the mature lime trees of Leith Links and the Shore-side gardens, on the Water of Leith walkway between Leith and Bonnington, in the chimney stacks and slate eaves of the tenement blocks along Duke Street and Easter Road, and in the ornamental planting of the Leith Victoria Park allotment strip.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CA6 4HN· approx. 116 km
Visit websiteNE65 9QH· approx. 121 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 131 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.
