St Austell is the largest inland town in Cornwall and the commercial capital of the china clay country, set beneath the distinctive white spoil tips of the Hensbarrow plateau. The Eden Project occupies a former clay pit two miles to the north-east; the Regency port of Charlestown stands below on St Austell Bay. The bramble-thick scrub around the clay tips and the Clay Trail access land carries a strong July flow; bell heather appears on the rough Hensbarrow ground from late July; the sheltered Luxulyan valley and the coastal lanes between Carlyon Bay and Porthpean add sycamore, hawthorn and sea thrift. Cornwall Beekeepers' Association covers the St Austell and mid-Cornwall area.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden and orchard remnants of the Menacuddle Well area and the Trevarthian conservation area, along the Charlestown harbour margins and the Pentewan valley wooded stream, on the bramble and heather rough ground of the Clay Trail access land to the north, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older stone and rendered terrace properties of the town centre.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
TR2 4LG· approx. 12 km
Visit websitePL30 5AE· approx. 13 km
Visit websitePL27 7DD· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The season opens with gorse on every headland, flowering intermittently most of the year but peaking in April. Blackthorn on the cob hedges lights up the byways; sycamore and hawthorn carry the early build; and the slow-growing pittosporum and myrtle in the sub-tropical gardens of the south coast provide unusual supplementary forage. Bramble is dominant through July, bell heather appears on Bodmin Moor and the Penwith commons in August, and the mild autumn leans on ivy and fuchsia hedging well into October.
More on beekeeping in CornwallReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
