European Bee Awards

We’re delighted to share some big news: the Inishturk Native Irish Honey Bee Sanctuary has been nominated for the [European Bee Award](https://europeanlandowners.org/awards/bee-award/), one of Europe’s most respected honours for pollinator conservation projects. Winners will be announced at the award ceremony in Brussels later this year.

## Beekeepers First, Meadmakers Second

At [Wild Atlantic Honey and Mead](https://wildatlantichoneymead.com), we’re a beekeeper-led organisation. Mead comes second — the welfare of Ireland’s native bees comes first, and it always will.

Earlier this year, we took the initiative of forming the sanctuary on [Inishturk Island](https://inishturkisland.com), 15km off the west coast of Mayo, to give Ireland’s only native honeybee, *Apis mellifera mellifera*, a biosecure home free from the pressures it faces on the mainland.

## Why Inishturk

Native Irish honeybee populations have been under serious pressure for decades, largely thanks to the parasitic Varroa destructor mite — and in October 2025, the IUCN reclassified the wild population as Endangered. Inishturk’s isolation, 15km out in the Atlantic, makes it one of the only places in Ireland where we can realistically build and protect a pure, varroa-free colony.

We couldn’t have done any of this without the island community. The sanctuary is a partnership with the Inishturk Community Development Company, and our first two hives are hosted on the ground by Paddy and Ann O’Toole. Since then we’ve built out a proper monitoring setup, tracking hive health on the island and comparing it against our mainland apiaries in Kiladoon and Co. Wicklow.

You can follow the sanctuary’s progress, including live hive data, at [nativeirishbeesanctuary.com](https://nativeirishbeesanctuary.com).

## What the Nomination Means

Getting nominated for the European Bee Award puts a small island community of fewer than 60 people on a European stage alongside farmers, researchers, and conservation projects from right across the continent. Whatever happens in Brussels in December, it’s a huge validation of the work the island has put in over the past year.

## In the Press

The sanctuary has picked up some lovely coverage since we started:

– American Bee Journal: [Remote Island to Host Ireland’s First Native Honey Bee Sanctuary](https://americanbeejournal.com/remote-island-to-host-irelands-first-native-honey-bee-sanctuary/)
– Connaught Telegraph: [Mayo island to host Ireland’s first native honey bee sanctuary](https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2026/03/23/mayo-island-to-host-irelands-first-native-honey-bee-sanctuary/)
– Connaught Telegraph: [10,000 bees take up residence on Mayo island in sanctuary project](https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2026/05/22/10000-bees-take-up-residence-on-mayo-island-in-sanctuary-project/)
– Midwest Radio: [Inishturk hosting first native bee sanctuary](https://www.midwestradio.ie/news/inishturk-hosting-first-native-bee-sanctuary/)

#Inishturk #NativeIrishBeeSanctuary #EuropeanBeeAwards