by Flora Edminston

Flora Edmiston shares her lockdown-friendly staycation activity recommendation!

The thing the changed the most about me during the ‘summer of lockdown’ wasn’t the increasing anxiety, my hairstyle or my baking skills. It was actually my tolerance to cold water. I could probably say something about the freedom of the sea after the confinement of lockdown, but I think I just really like swimming when the surroundings aren’t a slightly rundown leisure centre. Besides, I don’t think I’d ever be one of the women I saw at Whitley Bay with fluorescent floaties and wetsuit gloves swimming at 6am. I just don’t have the drive to swim before I’ve had some Earl Grey. But as a leisurely activity, you really can’t beat wild swimming. (I’ve just agreed to do winter morning swims: somehow, I can’t see myself feeling quite this positive in December.)

Anyway, since we can’t escape to hotter waters this year, here are my top recommendations for chillier dips.

1. Isle of Skye (everywhere, cannot be beaten)

The highlight of my wild swimming summer was probably, definitely, the Isle of Skye. I got about 25 replies to my Instagram stories asking if I was abroad in some Mediterranean country. The temperature of the water said otherwise. We did see some jellyfish at the Sound of Sleat beach and some unidentified furry creature that touched my toe when I swam at Talisker Bay.

2. Castle Sands

Since my return to St Andrews I’ve done two pier jumps and had a fair few swims from Castle Sands. Both activities were actually on my ‘St Andrews bucket list’ I made in the depths of lockdown (the rest is just expensive restaurants I can’t afford). I can’t recommend it enough, especially if followed by a cheese toastie from the Harbour Café. It might be my favourite café in the whole of the town.

3. Whitley Bay

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I revived my love of wild swimming on the 29th May, when I took my first sunrise swim in the North Sea. I tried out a variety of bays, times, attires and companions, but found the perfect combination in Whitley Bay, around 8:30am, with my sister and Immy and Millie. We would reject wetsuits and swim around the small green fishing boat that actually never moved for the whole two months I swam there. Can’t have been doing much fishing. When you get to the boat it’s only a weird numbness in your fingers that reminds you it’s actually 12 degrees and drizzling.

4. Lake District (specifically Loughrigg Tarn)

The Lake District is probably the place where my love of wild swimming really took off. I was encouraged (forced) into the lakes from about three years old. There was definitely a phase where I pretended I hated it, but I have fully embraced it in the past few years. Loughrigg Tarn is a place we always return to, and the place where I swam all the way across a lake and back for the first time. There’s also a lovely patch of waterlilies that you can only see from the water, but at your own peril because the stems seem a bit like snakes under the water.