Conisbrough is a limestone Don Valley town best known for its magnificent Norman castle keep — the oldest circular keep in England — set above the River Don between Doncaster and Rotherham. The Doncaster BKA covers this area, and the town's surrounding landscape rewards beekeepers: the Don riverside willows and water-meadow margins below the castle, the limestone scrub of Conisbrough Pasture, the mixed woodland of Anston Stones to the south-east and the hedged farmland of the Dearne valley fringe give local colonies a varied and productive season from blackthorn through to ivy.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the old sandstone and limestone properties around the castle mound conservation area and Church Street, along the Don riverside willows and watermeadow at Sprotbrough Flash below the gorge, on the limestone grassland and scrub margins of Conisbrough Pasture and Levitt Hagg, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older terraced properties on Sheffield Road and Doncaster Road.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
S60 5PA· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteDN3 3AG· approx. 13 km
Visit websiteS75 3PX· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Don Valley arable belt contributes oilseed rape to the early flow. Sycamore and horse chestnut fill May in Sheffield parks — Norfolk Park, Endcliffe, Graves; the lime avenues of Broomhill and Doncaster carry June. Sheffield's western edge opens onto the Dark Peak moors, with ling heather on Stanage, Burbage and Big Moor — a crop Sheffield beekeepers migrate to regularly. Rosebay willowherb is dense on former steelworks land; ivy closes a long season in the blackened-stone suburbs.
More on beekeeping in South YorkshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
