10 best UK coastal swims

Take a dip in the outdoors

It is one thing to adventure on land. It is another to do so in water. Such a precociously variable element: unpredictably wild, calm, invigorating. So changeable with mood, weather and season. In Britain, we tend to fly abroad for our sea kicks, in search of the Meditteranean’s warm, polluted soup. We neglect our own cleaner coast, afraid of the cold, as we get brain freeze from the ice-creams we insist on eating, sitting in the wind and drizzle, so the myth goes, in July. But to feel the bite – the buzz – of cold water is to feel alive. The pulse beats faster. The skin tingles. And our shores edge such vast expanses of water, alive with raw, powerful waves and skull-beating viscerality. They are places of beauty and wonder; places to awe the soul, to still the mind and stir the spirit.

Here are ten of them:

Burgh Island, Bigbury-on-Sea, Devon

Dark grey slate rocks to our left, sea to our right. At the start of the swim we were in bucket and spade territory. Now we’re in sea that’s properly wild. Walkers from the cliff top above us look down as we swim between two rocks and around Cormorant Corner. The dark black cormorants are there, eight lined up on a rock. The coves and cliffs that looked forbidding from the cliff top now look beautiful rather than frightening. One cliff is a giant flat lab of slate, bright with reflected sun. There are no rip tides around Burgh Island and, although the tide is starting to go out, it’s not much to swim against.

How to find it

Bigbury-on-Sea is about three miles off the A379 from Plymouth to Dartmouth. If you are swimming round the whole island, it is possible to get out at the beginning of the circuit, but after that, you are committed. This location is for advanced swimmers.

OS reference

SX 655 445

Purbeck Coast, Dorset

The Isle of Purbeck Coast is the wild swimmers’ equivalent of pick and mix. So many glorious parts of the World Heritage Site Jurassic Coast are swimmable, and all so different within a relatively short stretch. >From Studland’s dunes and views of Old Harry Rocks; past the Dancing Ledge and its blasted-out rock pool; to the seclusion of Chapman’s Pool, and then beyond to Kimmeridge’s fossils and flat, gleaming rocks; Lulworth’s undulating scallop shell of rock strata, and the majestic Durdle Door. Here we are, barely out of the more populous regions of the South, and into land and seascapes of thrilling, unspoiled beauty.

How to find it

Dorset is on the South Coast of England between Hampshire and Devon.

Chapman’s Pool, Dorset

Trudge (or slide) three-quarters of a mile down a super-steep sheep track, through the ferns, and – in the dark – the glow worms, and you will reach Chapman’s Pool, its almost-inaccessibility marking it off as a non-stop on the South West Coastal Path walkers’ way. A slipway offering easy access into the water and and a ramshackle handful of ancient fishing huts are the only signs of civilisation. Both are rarely used, even in high summer, leaving the bay the perfect location for driftwood fire barbecues (mackerel swim a stone’s throw offshore) to dry off by. It is easy to swim the width of the bay in safety admiring the tides crashing dramatically at its mouth. High tide is the best time to swim to avoid knees grazed on the sharp rocks dotted around just under the water’s surface, islands for flocks of seabirds to perch on at low tide, and home to colourful, wafting weed, molluscs and crustacea.

How to find it

From Worth Matravers, head for Renscombe Park and use the car park there. Follow the signposts and milestones to the South West Coast Path and then to Chapman’s Pool. Wear very sensible footwear, and be exceptionally careful in wet weather. The path can be treacherous.

OS reference

SY 956 770

Durdle Door, Dorset

If nature is your church, Durdle Door is its cathedral. Swimming under the huge arch of Durdle Door inspires the same wonder as the Blue Mosque in Istanbul or St Paul’s in London: the rock doming above us, the buoyant sea holding us aloft. You can’t help but feel uplifted. The best aspect to be had is swimming out through the arch into the open sea.

How to find it

Head west from West Lulworth and it is signposted. Parking is available on the clifftop.

OS reference

SY 806 802

Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset

Signs urge you to beware of falling rocks. This is not health and safety gone mad. I have seen shale chunks as big as fat oak seachests come crashing down here, fossils spilling out like treasure. Keep away from the cliffs, and head for the glistening, smooth, veined, wave-cut platforms – natural, very slippery, poolside terraces. The water here is like liquid basalt – dark, glistening, cool and clear despite the bay’s ability to act as a suntrap.

How to find it

Head for Kimmeridge village then follow the signs. Parking is available in the village or nearer the bay.

OS reference

SY 905 790

Minnis Bay, Kent

A 'no-frills' semi-rural beach - just beach, with a long row of beach huts on a raised prom behind it and a rarely-open kiosk café which serves coffee and chips in sandcastle buckets. This is a lovely, long, open, shallow gradient sandy beach, with distant views of the Reculver Towers and the Swale's collection of wind turbines on a good, clear day. The next land stop is the Arctic, making it breezy, bracing and wonderfully refreshing. This is quite possibly the loveliest wild swimming beach in Kent.

How to find it

At Birchington-on-Sea, head left at the shops and keep going, past the station, as far as you can go, then turn left for free parking.

OS reference

TR 282 701

Holkham Bay, Norfolk

One of the joys of swimming outdoors is being able to just keep on going: not for the outdoor swimmer the endless turns, the constant interruptions – 16 strokes, turn, 16 strokes, turn. Holkham must be one of the most splendid beaches to do one giant lap: stay close to the waveless shore and your 16 strokes could become 32, 64 and on up to three miles. As you breastroke or crawl along, you might see sand dunes, pine forests, beachcombers and sky. The eager-eyed may be able to recognise some of the local birds: in winter, there are hoardes of migrating geese, flocks of finches and wading redshank: in summer, oystercatchers and ringed plovers running in and out of the tide line.

How to find it

Holkham National Nature Reserve is three miles west of Wells-Next-The-Sea and half a mile from Lady Ann’s Drive (the car park – a fee is payable) to the bay, and at low tide, another half a mile to the sea.

OS reference

TF 887 457

Old Hunstanton, Norfolk

A short walk north from the noisy promenade with its whelk and doughnut stands, funfair, penny-arcades, Sunday bikers and shrieking children, the beach at Old Hunstanton sits beneath a smallish outcrop of fossiliferous rust-red cliffs. Atop these sit the Old Lighthouse and the ruins of St Edmund's Chapel. Few use this part of the beach for swimming, preferring the sand and relative safety of the groyned areas off the promenade. The beach is mainly rough, packed sand, heavily covered in pebbles and sharp shell shingle, and dotted with rocks the size of space hoppers and coffee tables - rocks which extend out into the sea. Beware the loss of toenails against them in the plunging waves. Neoprene boots with soles can help with avoiding stubbed toes or worse.
The sea is cold and often mildly choppy, which makes it all the more exhilarating. Further out, kite-sailers speed over the water, looking from the shore as if they may bump the tankers farther out still.

How to find it

Follow  the signs from King’s Lynn up the A149 to Hunstanton. Park at St Edmund’s Point car park and head along the Peddar’s Way coastal path in a north-easterly direction.

OS reference

TF 678 424

Walberswick, Suffolk

From Southwold, take the rowing boat ferry across the mouth of the Blyth and head for the black-tarred beach huts strung along the edge of the dunes. Despite the sight of Sizewell B’s giant white ball bobbing on the southern horizon, Walberswick beach feels boundless, curving to block the view of Southwold and its daytime tourists to the north. All is pastel here – faded green clumps of grass in bleached, soft sand; blanched greys and oily blues in the strong swell. The North Sea’s ferocity meets an atmosphere of bleak beauty and calm. Go at dawn to swim under a wide sky painted with a Turneresque palette. Go at night and you may find phosphorescence.

How to find it

Follow the signs from the A12 for Walberswick. Or for more romance, park down at Southwold Harbour and take the rowing boat foot-ferry.

OS reference

TM 494 744

Flamborough Head, Yorkshire

Some of the most spectacular cliffs in the country are at Flamborough Head, a landscape carved out by the sea. The white cliffs are 400 feet tall, with coves, caves and stacks drilled into seven miles of chalk headland to explore. The beach is a rough mass of pervious rock, bubbled and cratered by erosion and covered by sharp barnacles and heavy ribbon seaweed. Conditions can change fast. In just a few minutes the swell can pick up, and alter currents around underwater rocks, and even small waves turn into big ones when funnelled into the mouth of a cave. Caution is the order of the day. Gannets and puffins breed here. Hundreds of seagulls fly screaming out of the darkness.

How to find it

From York, follow the signs for Bridlington, and take the B1255 to Flamborough. >From there, the B1259 takes you out to the headland, where there is parking at Thornwick and North Landing. This is an advanced swim to be undertaken in groups, and with local knowledge.

OS reference

TA 257 708

Wild Swim by Kate Rew is available from Guardian Books, priced £14.99.

For more information, visit the Outdoor Swimming Society website. Jump in and join them: membership is free and members receive regular news about places to swim, safety, events, parties and more.