Looe is a twin-town fishing port on the south Cornish coast where East and West Looe meet at the river mouth, connected by a Victorian bridge. The steep-sided wooded river valley running north gives sheltered garden conditions unusual for a coastal Cornish town — fuchsia, escallonia, tree mallow and Cornish elms in the older hedges provide forage in the shoulder seasons, while white clover and bramble carry hives through summer in the farmland above the valley. The Looe River valley footpath above Coombe and Sandplace passes through ancient oak scrub and orchard that are productive in spring. Bodmin Beekeepers and Kit Hill BKA both serve this corner of south-east Cornwall.
Swarms settle on the mature trees and thick hedges of the Looe River valley paths above East Looe, in the old stone walls and harbour-side properties of the quay, on the escallonia and hebe in the cottage gardens on the hillside streets above West Looe, and in the chimney stacks of the Victorian terraces inland from the beach.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
PL30 5AE· approx. 20 km
Visit websitePL17 8AX· approx. 21 km
Visit websitePL1 2AA· approx. 22 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The season opens with gorse on every headland, flowering intermittently most of the year but peaking in April. Blackthorn on the cob hedges lights up the byways; sycamore and hawthorn carry the early build; and the slow-growing pittosporum and myrtle in the sub-tropical gardens of the south coast provide unusual supplementary forage. Bramble is dominant through July, bell heather appears on Bodmin Moor and the Penwith commons in August, and the mild autumn leans on ivy and fuchsia hedging well into October.
More on beekeeping in CornwallReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
