Bishop's Castle is a small medieval market town in south-west Shropshire, tucked in a fold of the Kerry hills close to the Welsh border. Despite its modest size, the town has a disproportionate reputation — home to the Three Tuns Brewery (one of the oldest remaining brewpub operations in England), the Six Bells micro-brewery, a distinctive Georgian cast-iron town hall and an unusually independent market-town character. The surrounding landscape of Clun Forest upland hay meadows, Kerry Hill sheepwalk, bilberry and heather on Clun Common and the deep hedges of the south Shropshire hill farms gives local bees a high-quality upland and meadow forage. Shropshire Beekeepers covers the Bishop's Castle and south-west Shropshire area.
Collectors regularly attend swarms in the older garden and orchard remnants of the High Street, Church Street and the Boar's Head conservation areas, in the old castle grounds and the Stretford Bridge orchard country above the town, along the Kemp and Unk riverside willows and alders at the valley floor, and in the chimney stacks and eaves of the older timber-framed and stone-and-render properties of this small hill-country market town.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SY16 3PN· approx. 25 km
SY8 1FD· approx. 25 km
Visit websiteSY5 8NP· approx. 27 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Early sycamore and hawthorn open on the Severn Valley; oilseed rape is common on the North Shropshire plain. Lime at Shrewsbury, Ludlow and Oswestry gives a strong June flow. Bramble is dense; the mosses of Whixall, Fenn and Bettisfield contribute a patchy but distinctive late summer flow of bog rosemary and cross-leaved heath. The Long Mynd, Stiperstones and Clee Hills provide bilberry and late ling heather — still migrated to by Shropshire beekeepers in August. Ivy on the old red-brick farms and timber-framed cottages closes the year.
More on beekeeping in ShropshireReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
