Surprising swimming stories surface in history of Kessock Ferry event
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Highland writer Jennifer Morag Henderson will be going to the Kessock Ferry Swim challenge on Sunday and hoping to see some of the people she met writing her short history of the event.
Asked to write it by an independent local outdoor education organisation which revived the swim last year to raise money for charity, Jennifer didn’t suspect how fascinating she was going to find the whole story.
“Charity Aban Outdoor who commissioned me to write it after they had seen something else I had written.
“They gave me everything they had and had suggestions of different people I could talk to. There was a mass of stuff and I got good stories and did more research and interviewed more people.
“I got so into it! I didn’t realise swimming was a way into discovering a slice of Inverness life.”
As well as chapters on the history of the Kessock Ferry Swim itself – swimming from South Kessock to North Kessock and back – there are short chapters on the Inverness Corporation Pool, the LMS Amateur Swimming Club with its own fascinating history, and the story of the swim itself since 1946, though early accounts date back to 1912.
Interesting details come up – such as during the Second World War, Nancy Scott (formerly Sutherland) remembers, the ferry swim didn't happen and the LMS club taught airmen at Dalcross for training how to swim in case their planes plunged into the sea.
Talking about researching and writing her history of the swim event, writer Jennifer said: “I thought it was going to be a fairly simple thing, but I hadn’t realised how much about Inverness you can tell through swimming. It was really a way into understanding a lot of things that went on and because it was so popular – it was a really popular sport, a lot of people went to the swimming pool as their social activity, so everybody knew everyone else and there were some amazing swimmers as well.”
Among those was Ian Black – he went on to swim in the Olympics – a young boy when he first made the crossing. He went on to win the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year.
Enthusiastic swimmer, Sandra Lee – Whyte now – was another swimmer Jennifer spoke to: “Sandra had done a lot of competitions when she was younger and had then emigrated to New Zealand and had had a family. But she came back to Inverness and in her 60s she started doing the veteran circuit and it wasn’t just Scotland, she travelled internationally too.”
“She is now in her 80s and had hurt herself ice swimming! But she has signed up for the swim on Sunday and is going to see how she feels on the day!”
There were quite a few lifelong swimmers Jennifer came across who had started as youngsters.
“I like the way lots of them kept in touch. One interviewee would say ‘Have you spoken to so and so? I know that they are in Inverness!’. So really strong friendships had been forged through swimming.”
Then there was Amy Carter who had begun to swim outdoors during the pandemic.
“It was fun speaking to Amy. She is not from Inverness originally and she didn’t know anything about the history of the swim. She had just taken up outdoor swimming in lockdown because she had missed swimming so much.
“Yet she was so positive about the event, and she loves swimming. She is a GP and she has seen patients whose mental and physical health has really benefited from cold water swimming. She had really interesting things to say about that, though I didn’t have enough space to write a lot about that. But Amy was just very positive about all the benefits outdoor swimming has for your body.”
Over the years, the way the swim was done, has changed in lots of ways.
Jennifer said: “I had asked lots of people what they wore when they were swimming and depending on their age, it was all different and they all had very strong opinions about this.
“Terry Gallacher, for example, who did it quite recently, he wore a wetsuit.
“Pat Sanderson (nee Ireland) got greased up in the 60s and Donald Macfadyen – who swam it in the 40s – said they used ‘wintergreen’ on their skin, apparently it stimulates heat on the skin. I don’t think it’s used any more.
“Ian Black wore swimming trunks his mum had knitted for him.
“Pat Sanderson, who swam it when she was seven [the youngest ever to do it], hadn’t even planned on going to do the swim the day she did, so she just did it in her vest and pants!
“Now you have to wear a wetsuit and have a safety tow float, but then they were more used to being outdoors and swimming in colder water.”
Swimming races were shown on TV before football matches were. Swimming was a fashionable sport.
Other long-distance swims apart from the Kessock one included one from Chanonry Point, Fortrose, to the Longman buoy, Inverness.
Sandra Whyte remembers taking it on with a friend and in the safety boat sailed the film actor James Robertson Justice who had a house in North Kessock.
“Swimmers were proper stars,” Jennifer said.
“Sandra Whyte – who had swum the "double double" across both ways at Kessock, then again – discovered a scrapbook her mum had kept of all the competitions she had won and she hadn’t known her mum had saved it all!”
Jennifer found a lot in the newspaper archives of Inverness Library and information at the Highland Archive Centre.
Many youngsters feature, such as a group of four 11 and 12-year-olds including Rosemary MacGillivray – the daughter of Alexander 'Curly' MacGillivray who was the assistant baths superintendant.
In 1947, Rosemary had been training in the town’s pool with the other youngsters being trained by the Inverness Amateur Swimming Club by swimming 52 lengths at a time. They successfully swam across from North to South and afterwards said they felt they could have done the return journey.
It was reported that a thousand people lined the pier and road on the Inverness side – and a group of porpoises were leaping out of the water around them, though not during the swim itself.
Over the years a range of obstacles have proved a challenge – from seaweed and jellyfish to the ferry boat itself! And though it was reported in 1912 that a Miss Duncan had swum it in just 17 minutes, Jennifer explains that the route changes and that both wind and tide can affect the time taken too.
Now Jennifer plans to be there on Sunday, when this year’s crossing is attempted – the 300 places are fully signed up.
“I had no idea I would get so interested in swimming. I keep telling people to come to the event,” the writer said. “The organisers are hoping they have good weather, like last year.
“A pipe band will pipe the swimmers down to the water, but they can’t start swimming till after 5pm as they have to fit in with the tide. But there will also be other things happening with stalls and things – and the booklet will be available.”
Jennifer will not be tackling the crossing herself.
“I won't be swimming, but I’ll be watching. I can’t wait to see it and I’m really looking forward to seeing everybody I’ve spoken to.”
Jennifer – whose Daughters Of The North was longlisted for the Highland Book Prize – has now moved on to new writing projects.
“I’m working on a couple of things – an ongoing large historical project about the Highlands and France, I’ve had an essay published in French about what I’m working on. I’m writing poetry as well.”
Would she ever think of expanding her history of the ferry swim into a longer book?
“I could have made it about double the length!” Jennifer admitted. “I don’t know if there would be enough for a book. But it would be nice to do something longer one day!”
The History Of The Kessock Ferry Swim (Aban, £5) will be on sale at Sunday’s Kessock Ferry Swim event. More detail:
