70 islands, 600 miles of coastline. Ella Foote visits Orkney and discovers an archipelago perfect for wild swimming adventures

Ella Foote

Just an hour off the smallest plane I have ever travelled in and I have sand between my toes and I am striding towards the water off Scapa Bay, Mainland Orkney. I have exchanged quick and polite hellos with two of the local Orkney Polar Bear swimmers, Peter Fay and Lucy Stansfield, and am now swimming into an onshore breeze while exchanging swim related stories. I feel elated; I am suddenly very far away from my day job, surrounded by beautiful landscape and immersed in cool, clear water.

Made up of around 70 islands, Orkney sits six miles off the north coast of Scotland and south of the Shetland Islands. Surrounded by the sea, there is over 600 miles of coastline. I hired a car for my visit and at all times I had sight of the big blue and sometimes, joyfully, out of every mirror and window I could see water. What makes it even more appealing, as a swimmer, is the changing coastline from island to island and from the west coast to the east. I could certainly tell the difference in water temperature between the North Atlantic on the west coast, which was surprisingly warmer than the North Sea on the east coast.