Bee swarm in Alness? Help is a minute away.

Alness is a town on the Alness River in Easter Ross, set between the Cromarty Firth SSSI to the south and the Novar Estate moorland to the north-west. The Dalmore Distillery upstream and the former Alness Point industrial area have given way to extensive wildflower and bramble scrub on reclaimed ground along the firth shoreline. The Cromarty Firth itself brings sea-aster and coastal herb into the summer forage; the Easter Ross arable plain on either side of the A9 carries oilseed rape in April and May and white clover through June. Hawthorn and sycamore on the town's garden streets and the lower Novar estate hedgerows fill the period between. The high moorland of the Struie and Novar hills above the town carries ling heather, reachable from hive sites on the estate fringe in late July.

The season arrives late — gorse and broom on the Moray coast and sycamore in sheltered valleys begin May. Raspberry (cultivated and wild) on Easter Ross gives a substantial early flow. The Highland defining crop is ling heather on the huge moors of the central, eastern and western Highlands — the finest UK heather honey with a distinct red-amber set and jelly texture, still commercially worked. Bell heather, bilberry and upland herbs supplement. Coastal sea-thrift and ivy on lochside cottages close a short, high-quality year.