Alnmouth is a small coastal village at the mouth of the River Aln, a former grain port whose harbour was isolated when the river changed course during a storm in 1806. The village now occupies a narrow spit between the estuary and the sea, with a character that combines old fishermen's cottages, golf links dune grassland and a broad tidal estuary. The estuary saltmarsh, the dune grassland of the golf course links, and the whin (gorse) and blackthorn scrub on the coastal headland provide an unusual maritime forage calendar. The Aln valley farmland inland carries hawthorn, white clover and meadow wildflowers, with sycamore and lime in the village itself providing a May flow.
Collectors are called to swarms in the sycamore and elder trees of the village churchyard and the old harbour area, in the stone wall crevices and roof voids of the older fishermen's cottages along Northumberland Street and Marine Road, along the whin and blackthorn scrub on the headland footpath between Alnmouth and Warkworth, and in the saltmarsh margin hawthorn and willow scrub on the Aln estuary shore.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE65 9QH· approx. 14 km
Visit websiteNE12 8EH· approx. 42 km
Visit websiteNE9 5AX· approx. 50 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The northern moors — Simonside, Redesdale, the Cheviots — carry some of the heaviest ling heather flows in England, with colonies migrated in from as far as the Tyne Valley and beyond. Bell heather opens the late-summer flow; ling finishes it. Sycamore and hawthorn are the dominant hedgerow spring flows. Coastal dune plants at Lindisfarne and Druridge add unusual seasoning. Rosebay willowherb flushes the post-industrial Tyne corridor, and ivy on dark sandstone walls closes the year.
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