Bee swarm in Newtown St Boswells? Help is a minute away.

Newtown St Boswells is the administrative centre of Scottish Borders Council, a planned Victorian village on the south side of the Tweed opposite the ancient site of Old Melrose, set in some of the richest river farmland in the Borders. Dryburgh Abbey — one of the four great Border abbeys, still remarkably complete — lies within two miles along the Tweed, and the river meadows between Newtown and Dryburgh carry willow, alder and hawthorn in a continuous riverside corridor. The leader valley farmland to the north runs to oilseed rape in spring; white clover on the Tweed haughs provides a reliable mid-summer flow; sycamore and lime in the village streets and the grounds of the local authority offices give a May-June urban forage. The Eildon Hills rise sharply to the west, their heather slopes accessible to heather-crop beekeepers from late July. The Scottish Borders Beekeepers Association covers this central Borders area.

Spring is late; hawthorn and sycamore carry May. Oilseed rape is grown in moderation. The defining flow is ling heather on the Cheviots and Lammermuirs from late July — dark, set, among the best hill heather in the UK. Bilberry in moorland-fringe oakwoods, white clover in hay meadows, bramble in sheltered valleys, and a short autumn ivy flow on stone cottage walls round out a short year.