Bridport is a market town in the Brit valley of west Dorset, close to the Jurassic Coast and surrounded by the deep-hedged lanes and medieval ridge-and-furrow pasture of the West Dorset hills. The West Dorset BKA covers this part of the county, and its members keep bees in a landscape where herb-rich meadows, ancient orchards and the coastal cliffs of West Bay and Eype all contribute to a distinctive honey flavour. Bramble, clover and wild marjoram are the summer backbone.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the old orchard and rope-walk garden remnants of the East Street and South Street conservation area, on the coastal cliff-top grassland at West Bay and Burton Bradstock, in the hedgerow oaks and ancient meadow boundaries of the farmland lanes towards Beaminster and Symondsbury, and in the chimney stacks and stone-tile roof voids of the older town-centre properties.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DT6 3PL· approx. 1 km
Visit websiteEX13 5RJ· approx. 19 km
Visit websiteBA20 1HN· approx. 25 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The chalk downs around Blandford and Shaftesbury bring hawthorn, field maple and a modest oilseed rape flow. The Dorset heath country — Studland, Arne, the Purbeck basin — gives an unusually long heather season (bell heather from late June, then ling) combined with the gorse bloom on the sandy soils. Lime lines the market towns; bramble is dense on the old commons. The late coastal ivy flow on Portland and the cliffs of Lulworth carries hives into autumn.
More on beekeeping in DorsetReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
