Presteigne — Llanandras — is the historic county town of Radnorshire, a remarkably well-preserved border market town on the River Lugg at the foot of Radnor Forest. The town has a fine medieval church, a Victorian judge's lodging (now a museum) and a network of old-enclosure farmland on both sides of the Lugg. The Lugg valley here is outstanding for bees: hawthorn and blackthorn on the old hedges, alder and willow along the river banks, wild cherry in the orchards and old commons. White clover on the hay meadows carries late June; bramble is dense in the wood-edge hedgerows on the slopes of Radnor Forest above. Brecknock and Radnor Beekeepers' Association serves the area.
Collectors here respond to swarms in the mature trees and sheltered gardens of the town centre around St Andrew's Church and Broad Street, along the River Lugg willows and water meadows at the edge of town, in the old orchard and deep-hedged farmland on the road to Norton and Knighton, and in chimney stacks and eaves of the half-timbered and stone properties of the older town lanes.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SY8 1FD· approx. 23 km
Visit websiteHR29PA· approx. 27 km
Visit websiteHR1 2NG· approx. 31 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Spring comes late. Blackthorn and hawthorn carry the early season; sycamore is important on every farmstead. White clover in the hay meadows is still a meaningful flow. The dominant late-summer crop is ling heather across the Brecon Beacons, the Black Mountains and the Cambrian uplands — dark, set, much of it commercially worked. Bilberry and upland grassland herbs add supplements. Bramble fills the sheltered valleys. A modest ivy flow on stone-built villages closes a short year.
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