Bee swarm in Ness? Help is a minute away.

Ness — Nis in Gaelic — is the collective name for a cluster of crofting townships strung along the A857 at the northern tip of Lewis, running from Borve in the south to Port of Ness and the Butt of Lewis lighthouse at the northern extremity of the island chain. The landscape here is the openest in the Western Isles: wide Atlantic skies, low moorland, narrow strip crofts running from the road to the cliff edge, and the distinctive lazy-bed rigs of traditional cultivation still visible in many fields. The Butt of Lewis lighthouse and the sea cliffs below it are landmark features of this exposed peninsula. Bees in the Ness area work a modest but reliable flow from the croft grasslands, gorse on the rough ground, and the heather moorland stretching south towards Barvas.

Machair — the distinctive shell-sand grassland of the Atlantic coast — is the most celebrated forage environment of the Western Isles, supporting wild thyme, clover, bird's-foot trefoil, ragged robin and corn marigold in summer on North and South Uist and western Benbecula. White clover and red clover on improved croft grassland provide the main June-to-August flow across all the islands. Heather on the Lewis and Harris moorland — one of the largest continuous heather blankets in Britain — is the defining late-season flow, running from late July through September; bell heather predominates on the drier ground. Sycamore in the Lews Castle grounds and town parks around Stornoway provides a productive May flow in the only sizeable urban forage zone. Gorse is abundant on the roadsides and rough ground of Lewis and Harris from March into June. Bramble flowers on disturbed ground and roadsides throughout the islands from July into September. Ivy on older stone buildings and walls closes the season in October for colonies in more sheltered positions.