Crieff is a Victorian spa and market town on the River Earn in Strathearn, perched on the edge of the Highland Boundary Fault where the lowland arable country gives way to heather moor and Perthshire glen. The Earn's willows and bankside hawthorn run through the town; the lime-lined Drummond Castle avenue and the Knock of Crieff woodland above the town give strong June forage. The Strathearn farmland south of the town is oilseed rape and soft-fruit ground from late April; the Muthill road and the Turret valley above Crieff transition into ling heather moorland from July. Perthshire BKA has members based across Strathearn.
Collectors attend swarms along the River Earn willows through the town and at Turret Bridge, in the Knock of Crieff woodland hawthorn and sycamore margins, in the hawthorn hedgerows on the Strathearn farm lanes south toward Muthill, and in the stone garden walls and Victorian villa eaves of the upper town residential streets.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CA6 4HN· approx. 168 km
Visit websiteNE65 9QH· approx. 181 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 190 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The lower Strath Earn and Strath Tay are productive rape and raspberry country in May and early June — and Tayside raspberry honey is a distinctive and widely admired flow. Sycamore is heavy on estate parkland; lime lines Perth and Crieff streets. The defining late-summer flow is ling heather across the Perthshire glens — Glen Shee, Glen Lyon, Rannoch and Atholl — with long-established commercial apiaries migrating in. Bilberry, rowan and hill herbs supplement; ivy on stone villages finishes the year.
More on beekeeping in Perth and KinrossReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
