Wild Thing: 3 fabulous wildflower meadows

The UK’s fine network of wildflower-filled meadows are an integral part of keeping honeybees happy and healthy. Best visited in May and June, they’re also lovely spots for walking and picnicking (or even enjoying a little spot of Honeybee Gin and tonic!).

Here are three of the best.  

These beautiful meadows outside of Sheffield are a riot of colour in the spring and summer. Bursting with swathes of bluebells, yellow rattle and red and white clover, it’s a rainbow of natural beauty that you simply must see to believe. With rarer flowers like orchids and pink ragged robins also blooming here, it’s a wonderful spot for a kaleidoscopic country walk. 

This coastal network of sand dunes and grasslands busts into life in the summer, with flowering plants including orchids, moonwort, fern grass and forget-me-nots attracting a riot of butterflies, months and bees. Keep an eye out for larger fauna, too – the Reserve is a popular spot for rare birds like skylarks, mistle thrushes and bullfinches. Out to sea, porpoise and seals can be seen.

Managed as a traditional working farm – grazed by cows and sheep and cultivated without the use of any pesticides or artificial fertilisers – a trip to Kingcombe Meadows in Devon is a stunning snapshot of how the British countryside would have looked two hundred years ago. 
A rich patchwork of fields broken up by thick hedges, green lanes, wooded areas and waterways, the summer display of wildflowers in the hay meadows is a sight to be seen. Beautiful butterflies and bees dance around the blooms in this beautiful place – and humans are more than welcome to join them in soaking up the sunshine.