Baltasound is the main settlement on Unst, the northernmost inhabited island in the United Kingdom, lying at the head of Balta Sound on the east side of the island. Unst is served by two short RoRo ferries — Gutcher to Belmont from Yell, and Yell from the Mainland. The island has a dramatic landscape of heather moorland, serpentine grassland supporting rare plants, and sheltered voes; the Keen of Hamar National Nature Reserve north of Baltasound is famous for its rare arctic-alpine flora on serpentinite rock. Hermaness NNR at the north tip of Unst is one of the great seabird colonies of Britain. Baltasound has a hotel, school, health centre and community facilities serving the scattered island population. Bees on Unst work the heather moorland and improved croft grassland of the island from May through September.
Collectors attend swarms in the garden enclosures and sheltered yards of the village properties around Baltasound pier, on the gorse and whin scrub of the roadside banks between Baltasound and Haroldswick to the north, in the stone-built croft outhouses and older farmsteads of the Balta Sound shoreline, and on the heather and coastal grassland of the Keen of Hamar above the village.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
NE65 9QH· approx. 610 km
Visit websiteNE12 8EH· approx. 638 km
Visit websiteNE46 3NB· approx. 646 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Heather is the dominant forage plant of Shetland, covering the vast majority of the island landscape with bell heather and ling running from mid-July through September; the heather honey of Shetland has a distinctive strong character from the pure moorland sources. White clover on improved croft land in the valley bottoms and the more fertile western Mainland parishes provides the main June-to-July summer flow. Gorse — whin — is exceptionally abundant throughout Shetland from March into June, flowering earlier than most mainland sites thanks to the Gulf Stream influence, and providing critical early pollen and nectar for spring colony build-up. Sycamore in the sheltered town gardens and policies of Lerwick and Scalloway gives a productive May flow where trees are established. Bramble on disturbed ground and croft edges from July to August. Dandelion on roadsides and improved grassland in April and May provides early pollen. Ivy on older stone buildings in the more sheltered settings around Lerwick closes the season into October on mild years.
More on beekeeping in Shetland IslandsReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
