Bee swarm in Dornoch? Help is a minute away.

Dornoch is a small cathedral town and royal burgh on the Dornoch Firth, famous for Royal Dornoch Golf Course — consistently ranked among the finest links courses in the world — and the cathedral that dates from the 13th century. The Dornoch Firth tidal flats carry sea-aster, glasswort and coastal saltmarsh plants through summer; the surrounding Easter Sutherland farmland provides oilseed rape and hawthorn in spring. Lime trees on the Cathedral Square and the older residential streets of Castle Street give a reliable June flow in the heart of the town. The extensive heather moorland of the Struie and Edderton hills to the south, and the Loch Fleet National Nature Reserve pinewood and dune forage to the north, give apiaries in the Dornoch area access to one of the most varied late-summer Highland forage sets available in the east coast counties.

The season arrives late — gorse and broom on the Moray coast and sycamore in sheltered valleys begin May. Raspberry (cultivated and wild) on Easter Ross gives a substantial early flow. The Highland defining crop is ling heather on the huge moors of the central, eastern and western Highlands — the finest UK heather honey with a distinct red-amber set and jelly texture, still commercially worked. Bell heather, bilberry and upland herbs supplement. Coastal sea-thrift and ivy on lochside cottages close a short, high-quality year.