Bee swarm in Thurso? Help is a minute away.

Thurso is the most northerly mainland town in Britain — a compact Norse-heritage market town on the Thurso Bay, with the Thurso River running through it and the Caithness Flow Country beginning immediately to the south. Bees here work a short but productive season: hawthorn and sycamore in the sheltered river valley; white clover on the Caithness farmland to the east and west; the sea-aster and sea-thrift of the Thurso Bay shore; and, most importantly, the ling heather of the far-northern moors. The Dunnet Head peninsula to the north-east carries coastal heather and sea-campion; the Forsinard Flows RSPB reserve gives access to some of the most extensive peatland heather in Britain. Caithness beekeepers are heather specialists by necessity.

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.