GET YOUR KIT OFF BIG LAD…A festive swim is not just good for your body but also for your mind
FOR some people it’s a daily rite. No, its not going to Mass – it is going for a Christmas or New Year’s swim!!!
And those in the know say it has many benefits – the sea relieves ills and aches, from the morning after the night before hangover to sciatia, diabetes and depression.
On what can be a stressful day, it can be a relief to get out of the house and rub shoulders with strangers in the fresh air and purifying waters.
If you’re feeling sluggish after a big breakfast it revitalises the body, preparing you for the turkey dinner.
The cold dip is also a good excuse for an early tipple – a stiff Brandy just to bring the body back to a sensible temperature.
And on a day that tends to focus on the material, a bracing swim might be the perfect antidote.
Most swims begin at noon; others begin at 11am, to follow morning Mass, and others again take tide into account.
There are 20 places across Ireland where you can go and dip your toe in on Christmas morning.
So we have picked out two….
Culdaff, Co Donegal
The Inishowen Peninsula feels like a county all of its own, set as it is on the northern tip of Co Donegal, bordered by Lough Swilly on one side and Lough Foyle on the other.
The New Year’s Day swim at Culdaff Beach is the peninsula’s largest, with hundreds gathering on this beautiful, expansive strand at 2.30pm.
Many swimmers cross the border from Derry and farther afield to begin their new year with a refreshing dip in the north Atlantic.
Bundoran, Co Donegal
A couple of hundred metres to the right of Bundoran Beach a beautiful cliff walk brings you around to two unlikely sea stacks, between which is set a springboard.
During the summer months locals and holidaymakers dive from both the springboard and the increasingly higher ledges of Rougey Rocks.
The springboard is taken in during the winter for safekeeping, but crowds gather on the nearby beach and race toward the crashing waves of Bundoran Beach on Christmas Day.
Tags: