Whitehaven is a remarkable planned Georgian harbour town on the west Cumbrian coast, its grid of sandstone streets laid out in the late seventeenth century to export coal and import tobacco. The cliffs and rough coastal grassland south towards St Bees Head — an RSPB reserve with dramatic red sandstone cliffs — are some of the most botanically diverse on the Cumbrian coast, with kidney vetch, bird's-foot trefoil and thrift providing an unusual maritime forage in summer. The Ehen valley and the gorse-covered commons towards Egremont add a late-summer heathland supplement.
Collectors regularly attend swarms on the gorse and rough grassland of the cliff tops towards St Bees and Sandwith, in the mature garden trees and walled gardens of the older Georgian streets around Lowther Street and Irish Street, along the Pow Beck riverside scrub towards Hensingham, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the Georgian and Victorian properties in the town centre conservation area.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CA24 3HZ· approx. 4 km
Visit websiteCA13 0AU· approx. 19 km
CA12 4NT· approx. 31 km
Association 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.
