Apiary Visit
This weekend the Apiary Team hosted a visit for Dunblane and Stirling Beekeepers’ Association members. The association has been instrumental in helping to get the Bannockburn House Apiary set up. All Apiary Team members attend the Winter beginners’ course run by DSBA before attending the Apiary the following spring for hands-on experience. The local association has also very kindly donated colonies of bees.
Nine members of the DSBA attended for an afternoon of beekeeping, history and cake. The weather was glorious and the house and grounds looked their magnificent best. The apiary is situated in a perfect spot and the visitors were impressed not only with the location, but the whole apiary set up built by volunteers.
Some of the hives were inspected and we were excited to see and mark our first mated and laying queen of 2023. The international queen marking system uses 5 colours in rotation (white, yellow, red, green, blue) and this year’s colour is red.
Following hive inspections, our guests were taken on a tour of the house and were fascinated by its history and historical importance. Cold drinks (too hot for tea and coffee) and home baking followed in the courtyard.
Post by Ilona
Ilona is the Head Beekeeper and leads the Apiary team.
Election Time!
Sir Hugh Paterson, 3rd Baronet & The Elections of 1708-15 By Andrew Colquhoun The loyalties of Sir Hugh Paterson, 3rd Baronet and laird of Bannockburn House, were to the exiled House of Stuart. Politics in early eighteenth-century Scotland was rent by sharp...
March Brings Breezes Loud and Shrill, Stirs the Dancing Daffodil
March Brings Breezes Loud and Shrill, Stirs the Dancing Daffodil The first daffodils are always such a welcome sight, a flower of renewal and rebirth. They are impossible to ignore as the neon-yellow-ness of the bobbing flower pierces through any shrubbery, dreary...
Breaking News: Major National Funding Secures Emergency Works at Bannockburn House
The Rescue Begins Major National Funding Secures Emergency Works at Bannockburn House Good news really does come in threes! Bannockburn House Trust is delighted to announce that three major heritage funders have awarded a combined £325,432 to support urgent...
Winter’s End & Spring’s Beginning
Winter’s End and Spring’s Beginning This seems to have been a long, dreary winter. For us here, in central Scotland, our photos record some snow and the there were some sunny, frosty days but it is hard to recall them as there has been such a long stretch of...
New Find in the Bed Linked to Bonnie Prince Charlie at Bannockburn House Deepens the Assassination Attempt Mystery
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT Bannockburn, Stirling - [4 February 2026] Researchers at Bannockburn House have identified new evidence in the suspected assassination attempt on Bonnie Prince Charlie during his stay in January 1746. A lead ball consistent with 18th century shot,...
Possets, Princes, & A Proper Bannockburn House Night In…
Possets, Princes, & A Proper Bannockburn House Night In... Winter has always had a way of creeping into the bones. Long before central heating, antibiotics, or the luxury of staying home with a hot water bottle, people in the 17th and 18th centuries still...
Welcome to National Tree Week. – Ancient Lime Trees
Welcome to National Tree Week. - Ancient Lime Trees - by Margaret Pollock Next time you visit us, see if you can spot our two majestic rows of veteran Lime trees (Tilia x europaea). They create a wind break and originally marked out some of the boundaries of...
Welcome to National Tree Week. – News From Bannockburn House Gardens
Welcome to National Tree Week. The Bannockburn House Trust Garden Blog - by Margaret Pollock Trees are special. They store carbon, replenish oxygen and conserve our soil; they give us food and shade, building materials for our homes and irreplaceable habitats for...
Riches from the Garden – News From Bannockburn House Gardens
Riches from the Garden The Bannockburn House Trust Garden Blog - by Margaret Pollock Summer 2025 is proving to be a bumper year for all our crops. In June and July we had mountains of Blackcurrants. Our harvested onions are huge and now we are picking boxes of...
Summertime and the Livin’ is Easy – News From Bannockburn House Gardens
Summertime and the Livin’ is Easy The Bannockburn House Trust Garden Blog - by Margaret Pollock After such a warm, sunny spring this year it has come as no surprise to us that we have a bumper blackcurrant crop this year. Our bushes were planted in the spring of 2020,...