Bee swarm in Lochboisdale? Help is a minute away.

Lochboisdale is the main village and ferry terminal of South Uist, set on a sheltered sea loch on the eastern shore of the island. South Uist is the largest of the southern Uist islands and carries an extensive strip of machair along its Atlantic coast — one of the finest wildflower grasslands in Britain — alongside the heather moorland of Beinn Mhòr and the smaller peaks of the interior. The village is the southern hub of the Uist chain; the causeway south to Eriskay connects to Barra. The west coast machair between Daliburgh and Howmore is considered among the richest machair in the Outer Hebrides, and the honey produced from South Uist machair apiaries is distinctive and highly regarded.

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.