Coleraine is a university town on the lower River Bann, just a few miles from the north Antrim coast. The Ulster University campus and Riverside Park carry lime avenues and ornamental flowering borders that provide rich mid-summer forage. The Bann's tidal reaches are fringed with willow and reed; the nearby Portstewart Strand and Bann estuary have coastal grassland with sea-thrift and bird's-foot trefoil. The fertile Bann valley farmland surrounding the town has productive hawthorn and blackthorn hedgerows, and oilseed rape is grown on the open arable fields to the south and east. Sycamore is dominant in late May throughout the residential streets.
Collectors attend swarms along the River Bann willows and alder through Riverside Park, in the university campus lime avenues, on the hedgerows of the Bann valley farmland south of town, at the Bann estuary coastal grassland margins near Castleroe, and in the eaves and garden walls of the older residential properties near the town centre.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BT26 6NH· approx. 88 km
CA24 3HZ· approx. 211 km
Visit websiteCA13 0AU· approx. 217 km
Association data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Coastal gorse on the north coast carries an early flow. Blackthorn, hawthorn and sycamore fill May. Lime dominates June in Derry, Coleraine and Limavady. The Sperrins contribute bell and ling heather from late July. The Roe and Bann valleys bring himalayan balsam into a strong late-summer flow; coastal sea-thrift and sea-aster at Magilligan add seasoning; ivy closes a long year on whitewashed cottage walls.
More on beekeeping in County LondonderryReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
