Leverburgh — An t-Òb in Gaelic — is the main village of south Harris, a small harbour settlement on the sheltered southern shore of the island where CalMac ferries cross the Sound of Harris to Berneray and North Uist. Lord Leverhulme gave the village its English name after his ambitious but ultimately aborted scheme to develop it as a major fishing port in the 1920s; the curing station ruins remain near the pier. The village sits within easy reach of the celebrated Luskentyre and Scarista machair on the west coast of Harris — one of the richest wildflower grassland environments in the British Isles — and the heather-covered hills of south Harris to the north. Bees in this area have access to outstanding machair forage in summer and heather on the higher ground from late July.
Collectors attend swarms on the gorse and heather scrub of the hillside above the pier road, in the croft enclosures and stone dykes of the settlements around Strond and Quidinish to the east, on the machair strip along the Sound of Harris shore between Leverburgh and Northton, and in the older stone and harled houses and outbuildings of the village itself.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
BT26 6NH· approx. 376 km
CA6 4HN· approx. 401 km
Visit websiteCA13 0AU· approx. 413 km
Association data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Machair — the distinctive shell-sand grassland of the Atlantic coast — is the most celebrated forage environment of the Western Isles, supporting wild thyme, clover, bird's-foot trefoil, ragged robin and corn marigold in summer on North and South Uist and western Benbecula. White clover and red clover on improved croft grassland provide the main June-to-August flow across all the islands. Heather on the Lewis and Harris moorland — one of the largest continuous heather blankets in Britain — is the defining late-season flow, running from late July through September; bell heather predominates on the drier ground. Sycamore in the Lews Castle grounds and town parks around Stornoway provides a productive May flow in the only sizeable urban forage zone. Gorse is abundant on the roadsides and rough ground of Lewis and Harris from March into June. Bramble flowers on disturbed ground and roadsides throughout the islands from July into September. Ivy on older stone buildings and walls closes the season in October for colonies in more sheltered positions.
More on beekeeping in Na h-Eileanan SiarReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
