Wild Swimming

When I was growing up in Cookstown, swimming pools in leisure centres, schools, clubs or hotels, hardly existed. I swam in the sea, in Lough Neagh and Lough Fea, and in the Ballinderry river. I have vivid and warm memories of cycling to a spot on Lough Neagh known locally as The Battery for a swim. Sometimes we went to Washing Bay, but that meant wading for half a mile before finding water deep enough for swimming. The river was accessed either through the grounds of Killymoon Castle, or at Tullagh on the edge of the town. We spent seaside holidays at Portstewart, Bundoran and Salthill, swimming off the beaches, or in natural rock pools.
As a young adult, I discovered the warm waters of the mediterranean, the cold waters of the North Pacific, the warm waters of the south Pacific. But my first love will always be the Atlantic ocean off the west coast of Ireland. My favourite sea-swimming spots are Ned's Point and the Nun's beach in Inishowen, County Donegal, the rocky shore at Cloughan, Liscannor, County Clare and Templenoe pier, Kenmare bay, in County Kerry, but I am always keen to add to my list.  I've swum off the west coast of Ireland up to the last day in October. I'm not brave enough for winter sea-swimming. 
For freshwater swimming in Ireland, I love the lake at Annaghmakerrig, where I sometimes go to write. The waters are still and clear, the only sound birdsong, and the gentle lapping of the water.  I've swum in rivers in England, France and Switzerland. But I haven't ventured into an Irish rivers since those early days in the Ballinderry. 
The only swimming pools I like are in the open air, preferably salt-water. But there is a fresh-water outdoor pool at one of my favourite places in the world, a hotel in Yacanto, in the Cordoba hills in Argentina. The pool is fed by a crystal-clear mountain stream, waters soft as velvet on the skin. I hope to go back there,  when we can travel again. 
In the meantime, not being brave enough to sea-swim in the winter, I enjoy the heated outdoor pool at the David Lloyd Club, Belfast. Bliss.