Grosmont is a small village in the upper Monnow valley of north Monmouthshire, one of the Three Castles of the Welsh March alongside Skenfrith and White Castle. The 13th-century castle stands on a rise above the village, and the Church of St Nicholas contains one of the most complete sets of medieval features in the county. The surrounding landscape is pastoral and relatively undisturbed — old enclosure hedges of hawthorn, blackthorn and field maple line the lanes in every direction, and the River Monnow runs through a sheltered valley floor thick with alder and riverside meadow vegetation. Sycamore on the roadside banks and in the larger farm policies provides the May flow; white clover on the unimproved hay meadows of the Monnow valley continues through June and July.
Collectors attend swarms in the mature churchyard sycamores and the climbing vegetation on the castle stonework above the village, on the old hawthorn and field maple hedgerows of the lanes towards Skenfrith and Pontrilas, in the eaves and stonework of the older properties along the main street, and on the Monnow riverside alder and willow between the village and the bridge to the south.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
HR29PA· approx. 15 km
Visit websiteNP7 9DY· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteHR1 2NG· approx. 21 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Blackthorn and hawthorn on red-soil hedges open the year, followed by sycamore and horse chestnut. The Wye Valley woods — Wyndcliff, Tintern, Wentwood — give a lime and sweet-chestnut June crop. Bramble is dense; the Black Mountains edge contributes bilberry and late ling heather. Apple orchards around the Monnow give a minor but useful pollination flow. A strong late ivy flow on red-sandstone stone walls and church towers closes the year.
More on beekeeping in MonmouthshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
