Stromness is Orkney's second town, a characterful harbour settlement on the west Mainland coast where NorthLink ferries to Aberdeen and Scrabster dock at the pier below the narrow flagged-lane townscape of the old centre. The town faces east across the waters of Hoy Sound; the hills of Hoy rise immediately to the south across the sound. The farmland around Stromness — the parishes of Stromness and Sandwick — carries good improved pasture and some arable, with the Loch of Stenness and Harray providing open water habitat that adds to the diversity of the local forage environment. The sheltered south-facing gardens and old granite enclosures of the town itself are productive swarm sites from May.
Collectors attend swarms in the mature garden trees and ivy-covered walls of the properties along Victoria Street and the close lanes of the old town, on the rough ground and gorse scrub of the hill above Ness Road, in the stone farm buildings and drystone dykes of the Warebeth and Outertown farms west of the town, and on the gorse-covered headland above Stromness Bay.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE65 9QH· approx. 422 km
Visit websiteCA6 4HN· approx. 447 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 450 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.
