C O N T E X T 1 3 4 : M A Y 2 0 1 4 29 MATTHEW PRICE Discovering Tayfield bee-house A small timber building that at first glance looked like an old garden shed with ornate finials and patches of bright colour casts light on the history of bee-keeping in Scotland. Walking through the grounds of Tayfield House in Fife one snowy NewYear’s day, I took a photograph of an unusual wooden building. Never did I imagine where my curiosity would take me. As a built heritage conservation officer with the local council I was familiar with a wide range of unusual buildings and structures, but this was a new one to me. Located against a south-facing wall of the walled garden, at first glance it simply looked like a large old garden shed with ornate finials on the gables. But I could not understand the patches of bright colours painted in neat rows along the white painted walls, looking like a strange modern work of art. When I returned later to have a closer look, it became even stranger.To the front of each patch of colour was a small ledge, behind which was a small slit no more than 2 by ¼. There were 16 of these arranged in two neat rows along three sides of the building. I was familiar with doocots with their rows of flight holes with landing ledges for doves. But these were clearly much too small. Could they be for bees? My suspicion was confirmed when I contacted the International Bee Research Association (IBRA), which maintains the National Bee Bole Register. There was nothing like it on the register, which includes bee-houses, and the association had not seen the likes, but they agreed it must be a bee-house. It is now on the register and the original photograph ended up as the cover for the winter 2012 issue of BeeWorld. Tayfield House in Newport-on-Tay, Fife, is a fine Tudor-style Georgian mansion house incorporating an even older house. Set in landscaped grounds, including ornamental ponds and the walled garden, the estate has been owned and occupied by the Berry family since the 18th century when a John Berry of Bogie acquired the estate on his marriage.The house as it is today dates from 1828. Over the years each generation has added to the impressive range of planting. Fourth-generationWilliam Berry, born in 1864, had a passionate interest in wildlife and was elected to the British Ornithologists Union in 1897. His son John, born in 1907, was the first director of the Nature Conservancy in Scotland. He contributed notes to theAnnals of the Scottish Natural Historyand the Scottish Naturist. A keen naturist and lepidopterist, he built bug houses and bred tropical butterflies. The bee-house lies against a south-facing wall of the walled garden at Tayfield House. The slots in the sides of the bee-house
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