Stokesley is a market town on the River Leven in the foothills of the North York Moors, in the district of Hambleton. The Cleveland BKA covers the town, and its position at the moor-edge gives local bees an excellent dual-character season — the hay-meadow and hedgerow hawthorn of the Leven valley farmland below, the ling and bell heather on Urra Moor and Carlton Moor above, sycamore and lime in the town's Georgian market square, and the bramble and meadowsweet of the Cleveland Hills footpath margins in between. A strong swarm season is a feature of the sheltered valley microclimate.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the Georgian brick chimney stacks and stone eaves of the High Street and College Square conservation area, in the sycamore and lime of the riverside walk and war memorial garden, on the moorland edge gorse and blackthorn scrub above Faceby and Seamer, and in the orchard gardens and hedgerow hawthorn of the Broughton and Kirkby-in-Cleveland valley lanes.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
TS8 0TG· approx. 10 km
Visit websiteDL7 8NR· approx. 16 km
Visit websiteDL3 6PW· approx. 17 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
The Vale opens on oilseed rape, hawthorn and sycamore; the Dales add hedgerow bramble and lime around Ripon, Harrogate and Skipton; but North Yorkshire is defined by its heather. The North York Moors and the eastern Dales give long, reliable ling flows from late July into September — still commercially worked, still producing some of the finest heather honey in the UK. Bilberry on high pasture adds a quiet early-summer supplement, and rosebay willowherb flushes every managed forestry clearing.
More on beekeeping in North YorkshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
