Bee swarm in Aberthaw? Help is a minute away.

Aberthaw is a historic coastal hamlet at the mouth of the River Thaw on the Vale of Glamorgan Heritage Coast, famed for the Blue Anchor Inn — reputedly one of the oldest licensed premises in Wales, a thatched, lime-washed building with origins in the twelfth century. The surrounding landscape includes the reed beds and brackish marshes of the Thaw estuary, the wildflower-rich limestone cliff-top grassland of the Heritage Coast, and the farmland and hedgerows inland toward St Athan. Sea buckthorn, thrift, and bird's-foot trefoil grow on the coastal grassland; hawthorn and blackthorn fill the hedged field boundaries; bramble is prolific along the cliff paths toward Fonmon and Rhoose.

Blackthorn and cherry plum open the year in the old orchards and thickset hedgerows around Cowbridge and Llantwit Major — some of the most intact ancient-enclosure hedge networks remaining in Wales. Hawthorn follows through the early Vale fields. White clover still dominates the traditionally managed meadows between Rhoose and St Athan, and oilseed rape is grown sporadically on the lighter soils. The June highlight is lime — Barry, Penarth, and Cowbridge all have fine street limes and park limes — followed by a long bramble flow along the Heritage Coast cliff paths. Sycamore is useful on the sheltered coastal slope; sea buckthorn, thrift, and bird's-foot trefoil supplement on the cliff grassland. Ivy on limestone walls and old farmsteads closes a long, gentle season.