Douglas is a small town on the Douglas Water in the southern uplands of South Lanarkshire, set in a bowl of hill-grazing and sheltered farmland where the improved valley floor gives way quickly to open moorland. The town is notable historically as the seat of the Black Douglas clan and retains the ruins of St Bride's Church, the Douglas castle chapel, within a walled graveyard of mature yew, sycamore and elder. The Douglas Water valley below the town carries hawthorn, willow and alder scrub; the surrounding fields carry white clover on the enclosed pasture through June and July. Above the valley floor gorse and broom are prolific on the rough hillside ground; the Lowther Hills to the south-east and the Hagshaw Hill wind farm plateau carry heather moorland accessible to those prepared to move colonies a short distance up the hill.
Collectors attend swarms in the St Bride's Church graveyard yew and sycamore, along the Douglas Water hawthorn and willow scrub below the castle ruins, on the gorse and broom of the moorland fringe above the enclosed farmland, in the white clover fields and hawthorn hedgerows of the valley floor, and in the chimney stacks and eave voids of the older stone cottages and former estate properties in the village.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
CA6 4HN· approx. 87 km
Visit websiteCA13 0AU· approx. 104 km
CA12 4NT· approx. 115 km
Association data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Sycamore is the dominant May flow tree throughout South Lanarkshire, heaviest on road margins, estate policies and river gorge woodlands. The Carluke orchard belt adds cherry and apple blossom in April, earlier than most of Scotland. Hawthorn and blackthorn on the Clydesdale field hedgerows extend the spring flow through late April and May. White clover is the main mid-summer crop on the improved grasslands of the Clyde and Avon valleys, peaking in June and July. Himalayan balsam is heavy along the Clyde between Cambuslang and Lanark from July to September. The upper ground above Strathaven, Lanark and Biggar carries heather and bilberry from late July on the Southern Uplands fringe, giving migratory beekeepers access to an upland crop. Bramble is prolific on former colliery and quarry sites across the region; ivy closes the foraging year on estate walls and stone houses in October.
More on beekeeping in South LanarkshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
