Stenness is a township and parish on the central Mainland of Orkney, set on the narrow isthmus between the Loch of Stenness and the Loch of Harray — a landscape of open water, improved pasture and ancient monuments, most famously the Standing Stones of Stenness, one of the oldest stone circles in Britain. The low-lying fertile ground of the parish carries productive improved grassland and a reliable white clover flow through June and July; the loch shores provide sheltered corridors rich in willowherb, meadowsweet and marsh thistle that supplement the clover in mid-summer. Sycamore in the sheltered gardens and farm policies around the Ring of Brodgar road junction gives a May urban flow on an otherwise open landscape.
Collectors attend swarms in the garden trees and elder patches of the Stenness properties near the Ring of Brodgar junction on the A965, on the loch-shore scrub of the northern Loch of Stenness shoreline, in the stone farm steading eaves and drystone dykes of the surrounding croft land, and on the flowering willow and meadowsweet of the wet ditch margins between Stenness and Brodgar across the isthmus.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE65 9QH· approx. 424 km
Visit websiteCA6 4HN· approx. 451 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 452 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.
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