Llangollen is a picturesque Dee valley town internationally famous for its annual International Musical Eisteddfod, set where the River Dee runs through a narrow gorge beneath the ruin of Castell Dinas Brân on its hilltop above. The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — carries the Llangollen Canal across the Dee valley three miles upstream. The surrounding landscape of wooded valley sides, limestone crags, and the open moorland above Horseshoe Pass gives bees an exceptionally diverse forage: valley-bottom sycamore and hawthorn, cliff-face thyme and rock-rose, heather on the moorland, and bramble on every woodland margin.
Collectors handle swarms in the walled gardens and older stone properties along the riverside and the town centre streets, in the valley-side oak and sycamore woodland above the Dee, on the limestone grassland and scrub of the Eglwyseg escarpment, along the Llangollen Canal towpath bramble and elder, and in the eaves and chimney stacks of the hotels and older residential properties throughout the town.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
LL15 2LB· approx. 12 km
Visit websiteSY11 4AD· approx. 15 km
Visit websiteCH7 6BQ· approx. 26 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Hawthorn and blackthorn are dense in the ancient hedge lines of the vale of Llangollen and the Dee valley. Sycamore fills every valley slope and sheltered lane, giving a reliable early-May flow. Oilseed rape is grown on the flatter arable land east of Wrexham toward the English border and the Maelor plain. Lime trees line the older streets of Wrexham city centre and the grounds of Erddig Hall (National Trust). Bramble is prolific on the Esclusham Mountain and on the Ruabon Moor edge. Heather and bilberry contribute from Ruabon Mountain and the Cyrn-y-Brain ridge above the city. White clover on the permanent pasture of the lower Ceiriog valley is still a useful flow in a good year.
More on beekeeping in WrexhamReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
