Making a wild splash
It has been suggested that being by and in water is more than a pleasure, it is at the core of our human condition. Much of our development as a species took place in and around the turquoise shallows of the Indian Ocean, where we became semiaquatic coastal waders.
Could this explain some of our more peculiar habits and features? Apart from the proboscis monkey, we are the only primate that regularly plays in water for the sheer joy of it.
Greek art is full of water nymphs and sirens. But as the 19th century dawned, a new era of contemporary European artists was rediscovering the appeal of the swimming hole.
The waterfall, surrounded by trees and mountains, was now regarded as the quintessence of beauty. Wordsworth and Coleridge spent much time bathing in the mountain pools of the Lake District; Turner and Constable painted a prodigious flow of falls, tarns and ponds.
As the Romantic era took hold, the water held its place in the artists’ gaze. Ruskin and others moved south to paint the river pools of Cornwall and Devon. Meanwhile, Charles Kingsley was dreaming of water babies on the Devon Dart.
By the 1870s, river- and lakebased recreation was entering mainstream culture. In 1889, Jerome K Jerome wrote the bestselling book, Three Men In A Boat, which was a manifesto for a simple way of living: close to nature, with river swimming before breakfast. Ratty declared in The Wind In The Willows that there ‘was nothing, simply nothing, more worthwhile than messing about in boats’, and by 1909, Rupert Brooke was writing poems about bathing in Grantchester. In fact, Grantchester Meadows was one of the first formal bathing clubs in the country, with an elegant pavilion and stone steps down into the warm waters of the river Cam.
Clockwise from left: Faerie Pools in Glen Brittle on the Isle of Skye; Wast Water, Lake District; River Waveney near Bungay, Suffolk
Similar clubs, Parson’s Pleasure and later Dame’s Delight, quickly followed at the Cherwell in Oxford. By 1923 more than 600 informal river swimming clubs were in existence around the country.
For many of us, these ponds, streams, lakes and rivers are places to seek inspiration and peace and also to be humbled by the wonder of nature. These are places where children see their first kingfisher or find their first otter track. Here we learn to play Pooh Sticks and build dams before falling asleep in the grass. The water’s fresh, so pick up, strip off and jump in…
What: Long, deep, secluded pool in a small, verdant ravine beneath a waterfall. Follow the river further upstream to Malmsmead to discover the notorious setting of Lorna Doone.
How to get there: From Watersmeet, a Victorian fishing lodge and now a quaint National Trust-run tea shop, or descend from the excellent Rockford Inn (EX35 6PT, 01598-741214), turn on to B3223 from A39, just north of Lynton, then immediately left, up steep, narrow lane.
PILES COPSE, CORNWOOD, ERME, DEVON
What: Remnant of ancient oak woodland, where the trees are covered in brightgreen mosses, with an exquisite stream and waterfall. Near here, on the River Dart, the hero of The Water Babies, Tom the chimney sweep, was lulled into the water by the fairies.
How to get there: Quickest access is from road end, NE of hamlet of Tor (via Ivybridge, then Cornwood). Follow track around waterworks and around hillside, one mile, dropping down to the stream. Continue on to Red Lake.
WIMBOURNE MINSTER, RIVER STOUR, DORSET
What: A wide, popular river pool with a riverside beach, footbridge and a small weir. Good walks or swims. Kingston Lacy NT, Beech Avenue and Babury Rings nearby.
How to get there: Heading west out of Wimborne on the B3082 Blandford Road, turn left down Cowgrove Road, signed for the football club. Continue ¾ mile to find small parking area and river on left.
BUNGAY, RIVER WAVENEY, SUFFOLK
What: Lovely riverbanks in a little alternative town with independent cafes and shops.
How to get there: Head down pretty Bridge Street, then first right after bridge (Falcon Lane). Also try the riverside music pub downstream at Geldeston (NR34 0HS, 01508-518414).
Clockwise from top left: Lower Ddwli Falls, river Fechan, Wales; Goldiggins Quarry, Minions, Cornwall; Wast Water and Scafell Pike
FAIRY GLEN, BETWS-Y-COED, WALES
What: A picturesque gorge with access for £1. The grassy junction pool is good for a longer, sunnier swim and family picnic. Upstream gorge has some large rocks to sit on and a deep section down the middle to swim through if the water level is low.
How to get there: Two miles south of Betws-y- Coed on A470 (Blaenau Ffestiniog turning). Turn left for Fairy Glen hotel (LL24 0SH, 01690-710269), just before the bridge. Follow the path via the river to grassy banks and large junction pool. Continue 300m on wooded path to bottom of gorge.
THREE SHIRE HEAD, RIVER DANE, STAFFORDSHIRE
What: Packhorse bridge, waterfalls and shallow pools in a small, wild valley, which is famous for counterfeit money and skulduggery. This is where Derbyshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire meet. How to get there: There are many approaches but why not start at the New Inn pub in Flash (SK17 0SU, 01298-22941, off A53 Leek-Buxton), the highest village in England? Take the footpath at Spring Head Farm.
OVERBECK BRIDGE, WAST WATER, LAKE DISTRICT
What: England’s deepest lake with white quartz beaches and clear water. Road access all along the NW shore. Dramatic mountain backdrop. Good pub and NT campsite.
How to get there: Signed Santon Bridge/Wasdale from the A595 west coast road between Barrow and Whitehaven. Or from Ambleside and Eskdale via the dramatic Hardknott Pass. Two-and-a-half miles on from the youth hostel, there’s a good beach at Overbeck Bridge, with car park on left by stream. Continue to the end of the lake for Wasdale Head Inn and camping (CA20 1EX, 01946-726229).
TONGUE POT, ESKDALE
What: There’s a series of lovely pools up the Esk. Tongue Pot is the best, set beneath an ancient packhorse bridge with high jumps possible into deep water. Many more pools 200m-300m above at Esk Waterfall and on Lingcove Becks.
How to get there: Park by telephone at bottom of Hardknott Pass and follow riverside path up through Brotherilkeld Farm for two miles to bridge.
Tongue Pot on the Esk at Eskdale, Lake District. Inset: Wild Swimming: 300 Hidden Dips In The Rivers, Lakes And Waterfalls Of Britain, by Daniel Start
PLODDA FALLS, GLEN AFFRIC, SCOTLAND
What: Deep, large, black plunge pool (30m) at base of Scotland’s second highest waterfall. There are the remains of Victorian viewing gangways around the pool. It’s a tricky scramble down into this forested canyon.
How to get there: Tomich is signed left at the power station off the Glen Affric road from Cannich (A831). Continue three miles beyond Tomich hotel, eventually on forestry track, to Plodda Falls forest parking. Drop down through woods to the view bridge to admire the panorama and the pool below, then continue down via steep path for a plunge.
RANDOLPH’S LEAP, FINDHORN, SCOTLAND
What: Stunning wooded gorge on river Findhorn leading down to a rocky headland with access to river beaches, and very large river pool and islets. There are some shallows for paddling.
How to get there: Follow A940 south of Forres, bear left on B9007 following signs to Logie Steading. Half a mile beyond Logie is parking and the gate down to Randolph’s Leap Woods. Look out for the fl ood marker stone.
2 Never swim in flood water, and be cautious of water quality during droughts.
3 Keep cuts and wounds covered with waterproof plasters if you are concerned.
4 Avoid contact with blue-green algae.
5 Never swim alone, and keep a constant watch on weak swimmers.
6 Never jump into water you have not thoroughly checked for depth and obstructions.
7 Always make sure you know how you will get out before you get in.
8 Don’t get too cold – warm up with exercise and warm clothes before and after a swim.
9 Wear footwear if you can.
10 Watch out for boats on any navigable river. Wear a coloured swim hat so you can be seen.
Wild Swimming: 300 Hidden Dips In The Rivers, Lakes And Waterfalls Of Britain, by Daniel Start, is published by Wild Things Publishing, priced £16.99.
Could this explain some of our more peculiar habits and features? Apart from the proboscis monkey, we are the only primate that regularly plays in water for the sheer joy of it.
Greek art is full of water nymphs and sirens. But as the 19th century dawned, a new era of contemporary European artists was rediscovering the appeal of the swimming hole.
The waterfall, surrounded by trees and mountains, was now regarded as the quintessence of beauty. Wordsworth and Coleridge spent much time bathing in the mountain pools of the Lake District; Turner and Constable painted a prodigious flow of falls, tarns and ponds.
As the Romantic era took hold, the water held its place in the artists’ gaze. Ruskin and others moved south to paint the river pools of Cornwall and Devon. Meanwhile, Charles Kingsley was dreaming of water babies on the Devon Dart.
By the 1870s, river- and lakebased recreation was entering mainstream culture. In 1889, Jerome K Jerome wrote the bestselling book, Three Men In A Boat, which was a manifesto for a simple way of living: close to nature, with river swimming before breakfast. Ratty declared in The Wind In The Willows that there ‘was nothing, simply nothing, more worthwhile than messing about in boats’, and by 1909, Rupert Brooke was writing poems about bathing in Grantchester. In fact, Grantchester Meadows was one of the first formal bathing clubs in the country, with an elegant pavilion and stone steps down into the warm waters of the river Cam.
Clockwise from left: Faerie Pools in Glen Brittle on the Isle of Skye; Wast Water, Lake District; River Waveney near Bungay, Suffolk Similar clubs, Parson’s Pleasure and later Dame’s Delight, quickly followed at the Cherwell in Oxford. By 1923 more than 600 informal river swimming clubs were in existence around the country.
For many of us, these ponds, streams, lakes and rivers are places to seek inspiration and peace and also to be humbled by the wonder of nature. These are places where children see their first kingfisher or find their first otter track. Here we learn to play Pooh Sticks and build dams before falling asleep in the grass. The water’s fresh, so pick up, strip off and jump in…
Where to jump in...
LONG POOL, ROCKFORD, DEVONWhat: Long, deep, secluded pool in a small, verdant ravine beneath a waterfall. Follow the river further upstream to Malmsmead to discover the notorious setting of Lorna Doone.
How to get there: From Watersmeet, a Victorian fishing lodge and now a quaint National Trust-run tea shop, or descend from the excellent Rockford Inn (EX35 6PT, 01598-741214), turn on to B3223 from A39, just north of Lynton, then immediately left, up steep, narrow lane.
PILES COPSE, CORNWOOD, ERME, DEVON
What: Remnant of ancient oak woodland, where the trees are covered in brightgreen mosses, with an exquisite stream and waterfall. Near here, on the River Dart, the hero of The Water Babies, Tom the chimney sweep, was lulled into the water by the fairies.
How to get there: Quickest access is from road end, NE of hamlet of Tor (via Ivybridge, then Cornwood). Follow track around waterworks and around hillside, one mile, dropping down to the stream. Continue on to Red Lake.
WIMBOURNE MINSTER, RIVER STOUR, DORSET
What: A wide, popular river pool with a riverside beach, footbridge and a small weir. Good walks or swims. Kingston Lacy NT, Beech Avenue and Babury Rings nearby.
How to get there: Heading west out of Wimborne on the B3082 Blandford Road, turn left down Cowgrove Road, signed for the football club. Continue ¾ mile to find small parking area and river on left.
BUNGAY, RIVER WAVENEY, SUFFOLK
What: Lovely riverbanks in a little alternative town with independent cafes and shops.
How to get there: Head down pretty Bridge Street, then first right after bridge (Falcon Lane). Also try the riverside music pub downstream at Geldeston (NR34 0HS, 01508-518414).
Clockwise from top left: Lower Ddwli Falls, river Fechan, Wales; Goldiggins Quarry, Minions, Cornwall; Wast Water and Scafell PikeFAIRY GLEN, BETWS-Y-COED, WALES
What: A picturesque gorge with access for £1. The grassy junction pool is good for a longer, sunnier swim and family picnic. Upstream gorge has some large rocks to sit on and a deep section down the middle to swim through if the water level is low.
How to get there: Two miles south of Betws-y- Coed on A470 (Blaenau Ffestiniog turning). Turn left for Fairy Glen hotel (LL24 0SH, 01690-710269), just before the bridge. Follow the path via the river to grassy banks and large junction pool. Continue 300m on wooded path to bottom of gorge.
THREE SHIRE HEAD, RIVER DANE, STAFFORDSHIRE
What: Packhorse bridge, waterfalls and shallow pools in a small, wild valley, which is famous for counterfeit money and skulduggery. This is where Derbyshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire meet. How to get there: There are many approaches but why not start at the New Inn pub in Flash (SK17 0SU, 01298-22941, off A53 Leek-Buxton), the highest village in England? Take the footpath at Spring Head Farm.
OVERBECK BRIDGE, WAST WATER, LAKE DISTRICT
What: England’s deepest lake with white quartz beaches and clear water. Road access all along the NW shore. Dramatic mountain backdrop. Good pub and NT campsite.
How to get there: Signed Santon Bridge/Wasdale from the A595 west coast road between Barrow and Whitehaven. Or from Ambleside and Eskdale via the dramatic Hardknott Pass. Two-and-a-half miles on from the youth hostel, there’s a good beach at Overbeck Bridge, with car park on left by stream. Continue to the end of the lake for Wasdale Head Inn and camping (CA20 1EX, 01946-726229).
TONGUE POT, ESKDALE
What: There’s a series of lovely pools up the Esk. Tongue Pot is the best, set beneath an ancient packhorse bridge with high jumps possible into deep water. Many more pools 200m-300m above at Esk Waterfall and on Lingcove Becks.
How to get there: Park by telephone at bottom of Hardknott Pass and follow riverside path up through Brotherilkeld Farm for two miles to bridge.
Tongue Pot on the Esk at Eskdale, Lake District. Inset: Wild Swimming: 300 Hidden Dips In The Rivers, Lakes And Waterfalls Of Britain, by Daniel StartPLODDA FALLS, GLEN AFFRIC, SCOTLAND
What: Deep, large, black plunge pool (30m) at base of Scotland’s second highest waterfall. There are the remains of Victorian viewing gangways around the pool. It’s a tricky scramble down into this forested canyon.
How to get there: Tomich is signed left at the power station off the Glen Affric road from Cannich (A831). Continue three miles beyond Tomich hotel, eventually on forestry track, to Plodda Falls forest parking. Drop down through woods to the view bridge to admire the panorama and the pool below, then continue down via steep path for a plunge.
RANDOLPH’S LEAP, FINDHORN, SCOTLAND
What: Stunning wooded gorge on river Findhorn leading down to a rocky headland with access to river beaches, and very large river pool and islets. There are some shallows for paddling.
How to get there: Follow A940 south of Forres, bear left on B9007 following signs to Logie Steading. Half a mile beyond Logie is parking and the gate down to Randolph’s Leap Woods. Look out for the fl ood marker stone.
10 ways to be wild and safe
1 Never swim in canals, urban rivers, stagnant lakes or reedy shallows.2 Never swim in flood water, and be cautious of water quality during droughts.
3 Keep cuts and wounds covered with waterproof plasters if you are concerned.
4 Avoid contact with blue-green algae.
5 Never swim alone, and keep a constant watch on weak swimmers.
6 Never jump into water you have not thoroughly checked for depth and obstructions.
7 Always make sure you know how you will get out before you get in.
8 Don’t get too cold – warm up with exercise and warm clothes before and after a swim.
9 Wear footwear if you can.
10 Watch out for boats on any navigable river. Wear a coloured swim hat so you can be seen.
Wild Swimming: 300 Hidden Dips In The Rivers, Lakes And Waterfalls Of Britain, by Daniel Start, is published by Wild Things Publishing, priced £16.99.