Harray is the only wholly landlocked parish in Orkney, occupying the central Mainland between the Loch of Harray — the largest freshwater loch in the archipelago — and the Loch of Boardhouse to the north-west. The parish is a mosaic of improved pasture, arable ground and wetland edges, with a white clover and mixed-arable flow through June and July that is among the most reliable on the Orkney Mainland. The loch shores provide sheltered corridors of willow, iris and meadowsweet, and the agricultural land extends toward a modest moorland ridge to the south that carries heather from mid-July. Apiaries here benefit from a central position equidistant from Kirkwall, Finstown and Dounby.
Collectors attend swarms on the Loch of Harray shore vegetation and the wetland edges of the drainage ditches bordering the loch, in the older stone farmhouse gardens and their mature trees along the Finstown-to-Dounby road, in the farm building eave gaps and stone dykes of the croft land in the interior of the parish, and on the heather and gorse of the central Mainland moorland ridge to the south.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE65 9QH· approx. 427 km
Visit websiteCA6 4HN· approx. 454 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 456 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
White clover on the rich improved pastures of the Orkney Mainland is the defining honey flow, running through June and July and producing a light, mild honey characteristic of the islands. Oilseed rape is grown on the better arable ground around Kirkwall, Finstown and the Stenness basin and provides an important April-to-May spring flow. Phacelia, now widely sown as a bee-friendly cover crop by Orkney farmers, extends the arable season into summer. Heather on the moorland ridges of Hoy and the western Mainland fringes from mid-July through September gives late-season colonies a valuable top-up flow. Hawthorn in sheltered croft enclosures and gardens is an important May source, earlier than it opens on the Scottish mainland. Sycamore in the sheltered town gardens and school grounds of Kirkwall and Stromness drives the May urban flow. Gorse on rough grazing ground and cliff edges flowers from March and provides early pollen for spring build-up. Bramble on disturbed and fallow ground through July and August, and ivy on older stone buildings and dykes in October, close the season.
More on beekeeping in Orkney IslandsReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
