Bee swarm in Kyle of Lochalsh? Help is a minute away.

Kyle of Lochalsh is a small service town on the western seaboard of the Highland mainland, facing across Loch Alsh to the Isle of Skye and connected to it by the Skye Bridge since 1995. Sheltered by the surrounding mountains of Kintail and Lochalsh, the village enjoys a mild, damp Atlantic climate that allows gorse to bloom on the lochside slopes almost year-round; sycamore and rowan line the main street and the railway terminus from which the Kyle Line runs to Inverness. Bramble is prolific on the sheltered slopes above the Alsh shoreline; heather covers the Kintail moorland rising steeply behind the town, and the surrounding sea-lochs — Loch Duich to the east, Loch Long and Loch Alsh — carry hawthorn and willow scrub on their sheltered arms. The Highland Beekeepers Association covers this remote corner of Lochalsh.

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.