Bee Boles at Moat House, 16 Donegore Hill, Muckamore, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 2HW

The Bee Boles at Moat House are a masonry structure consisting of a low wall containing six bee boles, which are small rectangular recesses. These are likely of 19th century date and are considered of some interest as a relatively uncommon survival. They are located in the rear garden of a house on Donegore Hill, near Muckamore, facing southwards.

The bee boles are set into a low wall constructed of basalt rubble, with roughly rendered reveals. Originally built as receptacles for bees to cultivate honey, they now serve as a garden feature.

The house to which the bee boles belong is said to have 18th-century foundations though it is now modernised, with roughcast walls, a concrete tiled roof, rectangular timber small-paned fixed lights and top-hung vents, and a modern PVC lean-to conservatory situated adjacent to the bee boles. The site is situated in a rural area next to a church.

While not shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832, a new garden layout including elements in the bee boles’ position is shown on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map, suggesting a construction date between the early 1830s and the mid-1850s, and provisionally dating between 1840 and 1859. The structure lies within the area of an historic monument, ANT50:47.