Bee swarm in Uphall? Help is a minute away.

Uphall is a village west of Broxburn in West Lothian, set on the River Almond with its own station on the Edinburgh–Glasgow Queen Street line. The village grew with the shale oil industry; the historic Uphall House — now the Macdonald Houstoun House hotel — stands on the Almond bank amid mature parkland woodland of lime, sycamore and oak. The Almond riverside carries hawthorn, elder and himalayan balsam; oilseed rape is grown on the farmland immediately south of the village, and white clover on the amenity grasslands of the residential streets peaks through June and July.

Oilseed rape is the defining spring flow in West Lothian — the arable fields between Linlithgow, Bathgate and the Forth shore carry a powerful April-to-May bloom that fills supers quickly. White clover on the improved lowland pastures is the main mid-summer crop from June through July; it is particularly strong on the Livingston amenity grasslands and the Almond valley floor. Sycamore is the dominant May flow tree on road margins, estate plantings and river valley woodlands throughout the council area. The Union Canal towpath carries himalayan balsam from late July through September; bramble is prolific on former shale bing reclamation sites at Broxburn, Winchburgh and Armadale. The Bathgate Hills SSSI provides heather and bilberry moorland for apiaries on the higher ground — a modest but real late-summer upland supplement. Hawthorn on the field hedgerows between Linlithgow and Bathgate provides a reliable May blossom flow; ivy closes the calendar on older stone buildings in October.