Redruth is a former mining town in the heart of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, set on the upland ridge between the north and south Cornish coasts with the coastal headlands of St Agnes and Portreath to the north. The West Cornwall BKA covers the town, and the surrounding landscape — the heather and gorse of the old mine-waste heathlands, sheltered valley gardens, coastal cliff-top grassland and the wooded combes of the Cober and Portreath streams — gives local bees access to one of the most distinctive upland heath forage areas in the county.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older terrace garden remnants and hedgerow oaks of the Fore Street and Plain-an-Gwarry conservation areas, on the heather and gorse heathland of the Wheal Peevor and Great Flat Lode mining margins, along the valley alder and sallow margins of the Red River towards Portreath, and in the chimney stacks and granite eaves of the older mining-town properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
TR1 2RF· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteTR17 0BJ· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteTR2 4LG· approx. 21 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.
