Appleby-in-Westmorland is the ancient county town of old Westmorland, set in the broad Eden Valley between the North Pennines to the east and the Howgill Fells to the west. The River Eden wraps around three sides of the town, with the Norman castle on its red-sandstone crag above the water and Boroughgate — a wide, lime-lined main street of Georgian townhouses — climbing steeply to the Church of St Lawrence. The Eden Valley and its tributary dales carry some of the finest upland hay meadow flora in England, designated under the North Pennines AONB: wood crane's-bill, pignut, melancholy thistle, and yellow rattle fill the riverside closes in June. Sycamore and hawthorn dominate the farm hedgerows; the North Pennines heather moors rise steeply to the east over Murton Pike and the Stainmore fells, with ling honey still taken from the high edges. White clover and bird's-foot trefoil are strong in the valley bottom pastures throughout July, and ivy on the old sandstone buildings closes the season.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the lime trees of Boroughgate and the sycamores of the St Lawrence churchyard, along the River Eden riverside hawthorn and willow corridors at Battlebarrow and below the castle banks, in the hay meadow and orchard margins of the Eden Valley farmsteads between Appleby and Long Marton, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older red-sandstone farmhouses and cottages of the town and surrounding Westmorland villages.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CA10 1SP· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteLA10 5AD· approx. 29 km
Visit websiteLA8 8LX· approx. 32 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring comes late here; blackthorn and hawthorn only really get going in mid-May. Sycamore is important around every fell farm; bramble and white clover carry midsummer. The defining flow is fell heather — bell from late July, ling into September — across the central Lakes, the Howgills and the north Pennines, still widely migrated to for one of the best heather crops in England. Bilberry in the oakwoods adds a small early-summer supplement. Limestone pavement herbs on the Morecambe Bay edge and ivy on whitewashed cottages finish the year.
More on beekeeping in CumbriaReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
