IT is Edinburgh's most prestigious shopping destination, home to some of the world’s most luxurious brands.

Now Multrees Walk is also home to four beehives.

Situated on the roof of The Management Suite in Multrees Walk, the four beehives from Kinross based honey business, Webster Honey - branded with the Multrees Walk logo - contain a total of 250,000 honeybees who are neighbours with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Harvey Nichols, and Burberry.

Nature’s best pollinators, bees, can fly up to three miles, and are now in a fantastic location in easy reach of Princes Street Gardens, Holyrood Park, Inverleith Park and The Meadows.

In securing Multrees Walk as its latest client, Webster Honey, which runs school and nursery educational classes, engages with businesses, and also has an online shop selling its honey to a growing customer base all over Scotland, is building on its relationship with Scottish Shopping Centres and Retail Hubs. It already has hives sited at Cameron Toll in the Capital, and Clyde Shopping Centre in Clydebank, amongst others.

In the capital, Webster Honey Hives are also to be found at in Eden Locke aparthotel in George Street.

“We are delighted to make prestigious Multrees Walk our latest client, and thank them for their generous sponsorship of four hives,” said Webster Honey beekeeper, Meik Molitor.

“Our bees will be very much at home here on the roof with so many green areas close by to explore. It’s a misconception that bees only do well in rural areas, as an urban environment with green spaces, just like the Capital, is just as good for them.

“Never have our bees had more luxurious neighbours!”

Meik finished by saying that Webster Honey had been making the move to more and more urban locations over the past few years.

“We started off with our hives in nature reserves, farm shops and so on, a lot of different, quite rural, locations, and we also had Primary Schools and Nurseries wanting to sponsor them too, as we offer a dedicated educational programme for children where they can learn all about the life cycle of the honey bee. I go into the schools to host learning sessions over a certain time period so that the children can see the hive mature. We have child size bee suits that they can put on so they can join me in opening and tending the hive. It’s a fantastic learning resource.

“In an urban setting we have found that there are also many applications for our hives. Clyde Shopping Centre staged an exhibition for customers so that they could learn more about bees and why they are so important to the eco system,” said Meik.

“It also fitted with their aims to become an eco friendly business and achieve specific green objectives.”

Webster Honey has also seen its clients offer customers the opportunity to take part in honeybee workshops, where they can be shown how to look after bees themselves. There’s also the option to purchase the honey from a Webster Honey hive you are sponsoring which can be sold on to customers, or, if they are a hotel or hospitality business, used in the kitchen.

Commenting from Multrees Walk centre manager, Leigh Aitchison, said: “We are delighted to welcome our 250,000 bees to Multrees Walk and are excited to be able to provide a safe habitat for them on one of our rooftop areas."