Yorkshire is heather country, and heather honey is the closest thing English beekeeping has to a regional speciality. The tradition of carrying hives up to the moors in August is still very much alive here, and it defines what a Yorkshire beekeeper means by a good year.
Ling heather covers the Pennine moors in the west and the North York Moors in the east, flowering from late July into September. Hives are moved up for those few weeks and brought down again, and the resulting honey is dark, aromatic and thixotropic — it will not spin out of the comb and has to be pressed. Below the moors the county changes completely: the Vale of York is heavy arable with oilseed rape and beans, the limestone dales carry a rich unimproved grassland flora, and the coast around Filey and Flamborough adds its own. Leeds, Sheffield, York and Hull all have active urban beekeeping working parkland lime, allotments and gardens.
The moorland crop is dark red-brown, intensely aromatic and jelly-textured. Lowland Yorkshire honey is a much lighter, conventional blossom honey.
Flowering times are typical and can shift by two to three weeks with the weather, season and altitude.
Leeds, Sheffield, York, Hull, Bradford, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Scarborough
Ling heather honey is chemically unusual — it is thixotropic, meaning it sets to a gel that liquefies when stirred. It cannot be extracted in a normal spinner, so it is pressed or sold as cut comb, and it carries a strong, slightly smoky aroma. It is a genuine regional speciality and priced accordingly.
Hives come off the moors in early September and the honey is jarred through September and October. It is a small crop that fails entirely in a wet August, so it often sells out before Christmas. Buy in autumn rather than spring.
Browse the complete UK honey directory
