Rothes is a Speyside distilling village on the River Spey, set in the narrow wooded valley between Elgin and Aberlour. The village has four active whisky distilleries — Glen Grant, Speyburn, Glenrothes and Glen Spey — and the surrounding landscape is a mix of improved valley-floor farmland and heather moorland on the hills above the Spey. The Spey riverside walk carries alder, willow and mature sycamore; white clover is abundant on the improved riverside meadows. The heather of the Mannoch Hill above the village is accessible for late-summer foraging.
Collectors handle swarms in the sycamore and garden hedges behind High Street, along the Spey riverside walk alder and willow corridor, in the elder and bramble at the woodland margins above the distilleries, on the heather slopes of Mannoch Hill on the eastern fringe, and in chimney stacks and stone wall voids of the village cottages and distillery outbuildings.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE65 9QH· approx. 267 km
Visit websiteCA6 4HN· approx. 288 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 292 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Oilseed rape on the coastal Laigh of Moray is the defining spring flow: dense sowings between Elgin, Forres and Fochabers flower from late April and can fill a super rapidly on warm days. White clover follows on the improved grassland and roadside verges of the coastal plain through June and July. Sycamore is the dominant woodland forage tree, supplemented by hawthorn on field margins and elder along burn and river corridors. The heather of the Speyside hills and the Dava Moor above Grantown provides a significant late-summer crop accessible from Forres, Keith and the inland villages. Raspberries are grown commercially in parts of the Spey valley, adding a nectar source less common elsewhere in Scotland.
More on beekeeping in MorayReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
