St Andrews is Scotland's oldest university town and the home of golf — a compact medieval city on the East Neuk coast of Fife with cathedral ruins, a castle on the headland, and the wide West Sands beach. The university grounds and the Botanic Garden hold a diverse collection of flowering plants; the lime avenues of the Scores and the North Street university quadrangles give a fine June flow; and the coastal dunes at West Sands and Kinkell Braes carry sea-aster, sea-pink and coastal herbs. The Kinness Burn green corridor, running through the town to the Eden estuary, adds willows, elder and bankside hawthorn. Fife BKA members cover the town and the East Neuk peninsula.
Collectors attend swarms in the Botanic Garden of the University of St Andrews and the university grounds lime trees, along the Kinness Burn willows and hawthorn margins, on the coastal dune and scrub vegetation at West Sands and Kinkell Braes, in the stone garden walls and chimney stacks of the medieval town centre and South Street, and in the eaves of the older residential properties of Argyle Street and Hepburn Gardens.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE65 9QH· approx. 137 km
Visit websiteCA6 4HN· approx. 156 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 158 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape is the defining early Fife flow across the central plain. Raspberry canes on the Howe of Fife add an unusual early-summer crop. Sycamore and lime carry May into June in St Andrews, Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline and Cupar. The Lomond Hills and parts of the north Fife moors give bell and ling heather. Coastal sea-aster and samphire along the East Neuk add seasoning; ivy on old fisher-town gables closes the year.
More on beekeeping in FifeReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
