Iain Macwhirter: Gordonstoun was right about the benefits of cold swims â but donât go wild
I’M not sure when swimming outdoors became “wild swimming”. A decade ago, that referred to the exploits of hardy coastal athletes swimming around islands and across channels. Now it is one of the fastest-growing outdoor activities, led often by middle-aged women who’ve started venturing into Scotland’s bitter waters without any protection.
In lochs, beaches and outdoor pools you’ll see them any any day of the week doing something that would have been regarded as quite mad just a few years ago. The waters of the Firth of Forth are notoriously cold, coming direct from the North Sea. But on Portobello beach there are often more wild swimmers now than there are hardbodies playing beach volley ball