Chirk — Y Waun — is a border village at the southern end of Wrexham county borough, set between the Dee valley and the Ceiriog valley with Chirk Castle (National Trust) on the hill above. The castle grounds — formal garden, park-land limes, old walled kitchen garden, and ancient trees — are among the finest bee habitats in north-east Wales. The Ceiriog valley below the village is a sheltered pastoral landscape of mixed hedgerow and oak woodland with a good hawthorn-and-sycamore May flow, and the Chirk Aqueduct and canal tunnel mark the junction of the Llangollen Canal corridor.
Collectors attend swarms in the Chirk Castle park-land limes and walled-garden orchard, in the stone and render village properties, along the Ceiriog riverside alder and willow carr below the village, on the canal towpath bramble and elder between Chirk Bank and Gledrid, and in the older terraced properties throughout Chirk.
Nearest BBKA-affiliated associations to help with swarm collection and local advice.
SY11 4AD· approx. 7 km
Visit websiteLL15 2LB· approx. 20 km
Visit websiteSY133JL· approx. 25 km
Visit websiteAssociation data sourced from the British Beekeepers Association directory via SwarmBase.
Hawthorn and blackthorn are dense in the ancient hedge lines of the vale of Llangollen and the Dee valley. Sycamore fills every valley slope and sheltered lane, giving a reliable early-May flow. Oilseed rape is grown on the flatter arable land east of Wrexham toward the English border and the Maelor plain. Lime trees line the older streets of Wrexham city centre and the grounds of Erddig Hall (National Trust). Bramble is prolific on the Esclusham Mountain and on the Ruabon Moor edge. Heather and bilberry contribute from Ruabon Mountain and the Cyrn-y-Brain ridge above the city. White clover on the permanent pasture of the lower Ceiriog valley is still a useful flow in a good year.
More on beekeeping in WrexhamReport it in under a minute and a trained local beekeeper will arrange safe collection.
