Loch Ness Solo
The write up of my Loch Ness solo swim! If you’re after a more logistics-focused write up (including pilotage and chartering) a second blog will be linked here when it’s up.
It was touch and go whether we would even start. The pilot’s boat had broken down, the replacement boat had no lights and no navigation equipment, the wind had shifted from the normal S-N direction a full 180 to N-S, and a yellow Met Office thunderstorm warning was in place RIGHT over our location. But after an hour long late-night call of me desperately trying to convince the pilot to even let us start, we decided to go ahead at 4 a.m the next day.
Not exactly convinced whether or not I actually want to start….
Why this swim?!
Loch Ness is a 23 mile/36km long point-to-point swim in Scotland in the UK. It follows an ancient fault line (the Great Glen fault) which splits the northern half of Scotland in an almost perfect straight line from the North sea to the Irish sea. The Caledonian Canal has been built along it, joining the 3 largest lochs that follow the fault; Loch Ness is the biggest of those lochs.
I chose the swim as my challenge for 2025 because I wanted a swim closer to home and closer to memories of my late father, Nicky. He and my mum had holidayed on the Caledonian Canal, and I had seen so many photos and heard so many stories of their time there. There aren’t many swims I can do to feel close to him in this way. My Round-Mersea Island swim was one, Guernsey to France (mainly because he helped me plan it) was another, and this was a swim where I could imagine him on the banks cheering me on. It also meant that while we were up there during my window, we could have a holiday and visit all the places he had been! My sister and I had never been up there before, so it was nice to see the sights, hear anecdotes from my mum, and spend a bit of quality time in a new part of the UK.
There was mist on the loch that early in the morning, but there was surprisingly good visibility. The pilot had been incredibly concerned about our ability to navigate through any low-lying fog, but we ended up having a visibility of (we reckoned) 2-3km. The loch was mirror-flat, mist drifting across the water, and no one else was awake. It was completely silent apart from the quiet rumble of our own boat. Taken by RIB to Lochend, I stepped in at 4:30am and began my swim.
I do all of my swims under English Channel rules, which makes it pretty easily ratifiable by most organisations- BLDSA, WOWSA, MSF etc. That means that this swim was in one swimsuit (my trusty Deakin and Blue), one hat, one set of goggles (Arena One Mirrors). I don’t wear earplugs or a nose clip, and this swim didn’t necessitate me wearing any sunscreen (no surprise to anyone who knows Scotland!)
The water was (incredibly surprisingly), MUCH warmer than we were expecting.
I had spent the entire summer travelling up and down the country trying to seek out cold water. I had trained and trained and trained for the cold, doing my longest back to back swims (7hrs and 6hrs) in 13°. I had been expecting the temperature to be 13-14°, and potentially as low as 10-12° as it had been for one of my coached swimmers in 2024. But instead I was treated to…. 17°????!
Outside of the very weird temperature, for five hours we had impeccable conditions: calm water, no chop, smooth feeds, and just a little rain. My crew were wrapped up warm on the boat in a mix of Evo Pro and Slimline Parka robes, which reassured me that they weren’t suffering while I swam.
But as expected as well, everyone was able to stay relatively warm, dry and chipper thanks to having the boat as our own floating base. Read more about that on the logistics-focused blog, once I get that up!
Loch Ness is definitely one of the most beautiful swims I've done. The loch is very long but relatively narrow, so you could see both sides and all of the landmarks and historic sites as we passed. I was able to watch Drumnadrochit, Urquhart Castle, and Foyers all fly past us. I love this in a swim, it’s one of the reasons I moved away from Channel swimming to focus more on lake swimming. There is a serious mental resilience to doing a swim this length with nothing but the horizon and the boat next to you to look at, but I have learnt in my years of swimming that I like to have nice scenery too!
The feeds:
I feed every 30 mins on a marathon swim, mostly liquid carbs, but also throwing in something solid every 2 hours. I followed this plan on Loch Ness, and the crew made up all of my feeds with warm water on the boat. This had been our plan to keep me warm, but it ended up just being nice given the water temperatures! The solids tend to be a mix of things that will stop my stomach feeling ‘sloshy’, and little treats. On this swim, it was lemon drizzle cake (soaked in maple syrup and covered in butter, do NOT judge me), beef jerky, caramel mini rolls, peach slices and Precision Fuel and Hydration chews.
I did feel a little bit of a mental dip at about ~4-4.5hours, but I told the crew and straight away they upped my carb levels. Increasing the amount in my feed and moving me to 25mins for a few feeds. It worked treat, and I perked back up in about 30mins!
I had expected the swim to take me between 13 and a half and 14 and a half hours, based on all of my paces in training. But my gold level, didn’t-tell-anyone, secret aim was to beat my English Channel time. That is, to go faster than 13 hours and 21 minutes.
This seemed outlandish to me because Loch Ness is further, colder, AND more difficult to hold your body without the buoyancy of salt water. This is why I kept it a secret- who did I think I was kidding?! I even ran a charity sweepstake at work, and only let people guess finishing times between 12hrs and 16hrs. This isn’t just modesty or bad estimating, every single training swim I had done suggested that this should be a 13hr30 - 14hr swim.
As we passed Foyers at roughly halfway, I kind of knew we were onto a good time, but I tend to lose track of time and my feeds after around four hours so I didn't really understand just how good the time was. What I didn't realize though, was that a thunder and lightning storm was bearing down on us and chasing us down the loch.
My crew were watching it on a lightning tracking map, first 38 miles away, and then 25, and then 12. We had agreed with the pilot ahead of time that if the lightning got too close that I would get out for safety reasons, but my crew knew that in my mind, this was an absolute last resort option.
The storm started getting a bit close for comfort and the pilot asked me for a power hour. A power hour is a term from Channel swimming where you have to put in an hour of the hardest work you can manage in order to break through a current, or getting in front of a tide change. In the loch, this power hour was a final attempt to keep me in front of the lightning storm. The power hour turned into an hour and a quarter, and then turned into an hour and a half; I felt like I had never worked so hard for so long in my whole life! My sister's partner stayed with me the entire time on the Red Voyager SUP, shouting encouragement at me every single time I breathed towards him. Will got in the water with me and swam alongside me to keep my spirits up. Sometimes, a solo swim can feel very lonely. In this final hour, I have never felt so looked after, and so intrinsically part of a team.
Luckily at this point we had started the caffeine protocol that was created and set for me by the sports scientists at Precision Fuel and Hydration. The aim (for a 14-16hr swim……) had been to start at hour 6 and have a gel every 2 hours. So when the pilot asked for this power hour at ~9.5 hours in, I was well caffeinated! As I said to the Precision team in my debrief- I felt like I had a motor on my feet!
And then finally I was told we were one feed away. My mum and sister went ahead to take the boat into the beach so that they could be there to greet me on the shore. Will was already in the water with me; he had got in as soon as we were safely inside 1 hour remaining [English Channel rules mean I can only have a support swimmer in for a maximum of 1 hour at a time], and Jamie had been on the SUP with me for hours.
As the storm got closer to us, the wind got higher and higher and the waves and chop on the loch got worse and worse. Landing on Fort Augustus Beach, pushing through the current from the River Oich working hard against me, was one of the longest 400 metres of my life.
I climbed out onto the beach at Fort Augustus, turned around and raised my arms to signal my finish. The boat horn sounded, my family cheered, I cried.
11 hrs, 16 mins
If you hadn’t already picked up on it- I never in a hundred years would have predicted that time. I could not believe it. It was my fastest ever average time for an ultra-marathon swim by over 10 seconds per 100m, or a little bit over 8%. Normally when I finish a swim, I feel more than anything- relief. Loch Ness was different, I was relived, yes; but also just over the moon. Elated. Ecstatic. Physically tired, but utterly overjoyed. It was everything, and it was perfect.
Loch Ness wasn't just one of the most beautiful swims I've ever done, I honestly think this was one of my best ever performances as a swimmer. Everything went right on the day. My build up, my nutrition, my preparation, my crew of brilliant family - the swim was perfect. It’s going to be seriously tough to top this one!
Not only was this one of (I think) my best performances as a swimmer, it was also one of the easiest and most enjoyable recoveries I’ve had. The next day I felt great, and went for a little head-up dip. The day after that, Will and I swam the 7km length of Loch Oich for fun! The day after that (now 3 days post-Loch Ness), I wanted to try swimming the 14km length of Loch Lochy to see if I could tick off all of the Caledonian Canal, but I was unfortunately thwarted by Force 5-6 winds after 7km and 2hrs. Next time!
As always, I cannot thank my stellar, multi-talented crew enough. I love you all so much ❤️
Feeding and nutrition: Will & Mum (with thanks to Precision Fuel and Hydration)
Social media: Becca & Will
SUP Support: Jamie (he was honestly just gassed to have an excuse to be on a SUP for ~11hrs) & Becca
In-water Support: Will
On-board Medic: Mum
Filming, Photography, Videography: Stuart Walker (with thanks to Red Equipment)
