Protecting Bees at Dunollie

This April for National Earth Day, we wanted to talk about something that we know has been part of life at Dunollie for hundreds of years, which was also included in the many interests of Miss Hope MacDougall, and in fact which should interest every one of us today more than ever – bees!

The important work that bees do for our Earth remains as critical today as it has been for millions of years. The most well-known perk to keeping bees is the production of delicious honey, which has long been renowned for its medicinal properties as well as its taste. However, bees are also incredible pollinators which aid in the pollination of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Bees also pollinate trees and flowers which provide habitats for other forms of wildlife, making them an essential part of many ecosystems.

The MacDougall’s have historically been interested in keeping bees here at Dunollie. In our archive, we have invoices which show bee-related purchases at Dunollie from 1737, including an invoice from 1843 for “4 beehives and 3 empty beeskeps” which helps us imagine how many bees were here. Further, Miss Hope MacDougall has in her expansive social history collection a ‘super’ from a beehive which she took from the family home when she left in 1966, so we can gather that there were still bees being kept at Dunollie at this time.

A ‘super’ is a square frame which is placed in the top of a beehive which contains shelves for collecting honey – with the name coming from the word ‘superstructure’, which means a structure built on top of something else.

Also in Hope’s collection is a jar containing honeycomb which would have been built directly into the jar whilst it was inside a hive.