to Walk in Trevor's Footsteps

Trevor Rimmer (1914- 83)  wrote a lovely booklet entitled "History of Manx beekeeping"

Before the 20th century colonies of bees were traditionally kept in skeps.  These are round domes made of twisted straw held together by a binding made of blackberry stems. The colonies had to be kept out of the way and were kept in recesses in stone walls.  These are called bee boles. 

Trevor made a comprehensive list of where these bee boles may be found in the Island.

This particular site is at an old derelict farm called The Neary. Surprisingly, in spite of the fact that it is within two miles of where I live, I have never visited it before.

In fact it is so completely off the beaten path that it has taken me two visits to find it. So here you see the bee boles in the farm yard wall of an upland farmstead that was abandoned in 1902. Originally Trevor indicated that there were seven visible but one needs a little imagination to see that now.

This farmstead is about 750 feet above sea level and is really quite remote. The bee boles face south east to obtain the maximum amount of sun and have shelter from the prevailing wind.

The honey production would have been very important to the family that lived here.