Richmond is a handsome Norman market town above the River Swale in Swaledale — one of the most dramatic northern Dales settings in England, with a castle dominating the town from a crag above the river. The lower Swale gorge combines limestone grassland herbs, gorge-side woodland and haymeadow remnants with the open heather-and-bilberry moors of Swaledale above, giving local bees a deeply traditional Dales-edge season.
Swarms settle on the castle-crag scrub above the Swale, in the walled gardens and cobbled yards of the Georgian market town, on the riverside alder and ash below the falls at Easby, and in the old lead-mine hedgerow scrub on the Swaledale approach lanes. Collectors here also cover lower Swaledale and the Catterick area.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
DL10 4TT· approx. 1 km
Visit websiteDL3 6PW· approx. 19 km
Visit websiteDL7 8NR· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Vale opens on oilseed rape, hawthorn and sycamore; the Dales add hedgerow bramble and lime around Ripon, Harrogate and Skipton; but North Yorkshire is defined by its heather. The North York Moors and the eastern Dales give long, reliable ling flows from late July into September — still commercially worked, still producing some of the finest heather honey in the UK. Bilberry on high pasture adds a quiet early-summer supplement, and rosebay willowherb flushes every managed forestry clearing.
More on beekeeping in North YorkshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
