Swimming through the seasons
Every season in the Inner Hebrides offers something different to the outdoor swimmer.
In Autumn the lochs are at their warmest and the landscape and skies start to pop with all colours of pinks, browns and oranges. Days are getting shorter, sunsets earlier and sunrises later. With melancholic moody days come cosy log fires and the roar of the deer rut. There is a quietening down of the islands as the last of the holidaymakers leave and local tourism businesses get ready to take their end of season break.
Winter’s night skies provide a magical backdrop for outdoor swimmers. If there’s a full moon on a clear night a flurry of excited messages goes around the open water community asking “who’s up for a dip?”. In olden times great regard was paid to the increase and wane of the moon. Am Faoilleach (January in Gaelic) is often called the “wolf month” or “wolf moon” in reference to hungry wolves coming down from the hills in search of food. The October full moon is known in Gaelic as Gealach a’ Bhruic ‘the badger’s moon’ or Gealach Bhuidhe nam Broc ‘the yellow moon of the badgers’ referring to the animal using the light of this moon to furnish its home with large amounts of dry grass.
With little light pollution and higher latitude, stars feel close enough to touch and we’re often lucky enough to see the Northern Lights. Half the thrill of cold water dipping is the lack of faffing involved. You just need a swim suit and a woolly hat and you’re good to go. (Although neoprene booties and gloves are game changers and well worth the money). Short dips don’t require as much time to warm up again afterwards either and within half an hour you’ll have done your swim and be sitting at the dinner table basked in a rosy glow!
With the advent of Spring comes the opportunity to watch the sun rise ever earlier over morning coffee with your fellow swimmers. The waters are warming up but still a fresh 9C so some of us enjoy slightly longer skins dips and others dust off the wetsuits and brave the brain freeze that comes with the early frontcrawl swims of the year. The arrival of the puffins is an excuse to get out to Staffa for a swim in Fingal’s Cave followed by a picnic on neighbouring Lunga where an abundance of birdlife returns to the Treshnish Isles for the breeding season. Harp Rock vibrates with the sound of puffins, kittiwakes, razorbills, guillemots and more as they each begin staking their claims on the best real estate for nesting and raising their young.
Midsummer is undoubtedly the time of abundance of wildflowers with delicate harebells, proliferations of bluebells and ladies bedstraw (used to stuff mattresses on days gone by – no doubt because of its strong scents of perfume). There’s a delicious smell of wild garlic in the air. As the air temperature is warming up wetsuits are ditched and longer swims can be enjoyed without the worry of getting cold. Sitting on the beach after a swim with the warm sun on your face is the most wonderful feeling!
Outdoor swimming is a catch all term for being outside in water. It can describe someone who likes to paddle up to their knees, someone who treads water, a heads-up breaststroker with a sense of adventure, or a distance freestyle swimmer keen to explore beyond the shores. And it’s possible to be all of these too! There are times I don’t feel like swimming at all, preferring to lie on my back and look up at the sky; other times I want to get my head down and lose myself in the rhythm of my stroke and breath. The point being that swimming outdoors can be for everyone and in any form.
