Wild Swimming is Dominated by Women: Here's the UK's Top Spots

Some women feel discouraged from pursuing certain activities because they’re considered ‘masculine’.

This is known as the gender hobby gap.

These hobbies usually include high-intensity or male-dominated sports; however, the sport for true adrenaline junkies, wild swimming, is dominated by women.1 

65% of wild swimmers are women,2 suggesting that the gender hobby gap has shifted, and women are pursuing their interests in new and different activities. 

As the sun begins shining on the UK this month, the experts at Live Football Tickets sought to investigate the country’s most scenic wild swimming spots. To do this, they collected a list of wild swimming locations across the UK and ranked them based on their volume of Instagram hashtags.

Key Findings

• Loch Lomond and Katrine is the UK’s most scenic wild swimming spot.
• England features four locations in the top 10. 
• Scotland and Wales each feature three wild swimming spots in the top 10. 

The UK’s Most Scenic Wild Swimming Spots

The study reveals that Loch Lomond and Katrine in the Trossachs National Park in southern Scotland is the most scenic wild swimming spot in the UK. With 623,000 Instagram hashtags, the Scottish lake has 12% more hashtags than its second-place competitor, Loch Ness, and has over 2000% more popularity than Llyn Padarn in 10th place. Just a 46-minute drive away from Glasgow, why not venture to the UK’s largest lake to enjoy 30 square miles of the nation’s most scenic freshwater? 

In second place lies Scotland’s most famous lake, Loch Ness. Known in folklore for being host to Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, this freshwater giant has accumulated a myth-busting 556,000 Instagram hashtags. With a length of 23 miles, wild swimmers are spoilt for choice for where to take a dip. It takes just 30 minutes to drive to the lake’s centre from its closest city, Inverness.

The third place transports us over 500 miles south to Nant Sere in the Brecon Beacons National Park. This Welsh waterfall hides just north of Pen Y Fan, offering a visual delight for wild swimmers keen to embrace nature in all its diversity. With 192,000 Instagram hashtags, this well-captured part of the Welsh countryside offers more than just peaks and troughs, but falls and plunges too!  This scenic swimming opportunity is often shadowed by the incredible hikes surrounding the waterfall, so if a dip after a morning hike sounds enticing, Nant Sere can be reached in just over one hour by car from Cardiff. 

Most Scenic Wild Swimming Spots in England

Although just falling short of a place in the top three leaderboard, English wild swimming spots make up the majority of the top 10 with four wild swimming locations. 

At first glance, Bolton Abbey might not appear as an obvious wild swimming destination in the UK, but it grabs the fourth spot in the ranking with both hands. Near the abbey, there are stepping stones and a small beach area that has attracted 93,000 hashtags on Instagram. Located in Skipton in North Yorkshire, this wild swimming gem is reachable from Leeds in 54 minutes by car. 

In seventh place, we travel 100 miles north to the Lake District, home to the glacial lake, Wastwater. This wild swimming spot has accumulated 49,400 Instagram hashtags, nearly double as many as 10th place. Unlike other locations in the ranking, this three-mile-long lake is not easily reachable from major cities in the UK. So, if you’re seeking full nature mode for your first (or next) wild swim, then a trip to the Lake District might tick all the boxes.

250 miles down the country, we find our eighth-place-holder, Symonds Yat. This wild swimming spot lies on the River Wye in the Wye Valley National Landscape, near Ross-on-Wye and Gloucester. It’s been hashtagged on Instagram 35,700 times, owing to its accessibility to towns and cities in the South West, such as Gloucester, Bristol, Newport, and Worcester.