sheila

David

_I_ get traumatised by going to Largs and Ayr.

And it's got nothing to do with the seaside.

Cholmondley_Warner

Being forced into the North Sea as a boy (with associated "shrinkage&quot was a life altering moment. I thought it would never come back.

The hordes of pissed scotchmen in charity shop suits wandering up and down the prom drinking tenants lager out of tins with dolly birds on them was similarly affecting.

Largs even sounds like a disease.

markrosy

Largs, dear boy, is on the Irish Sea and that is tropical compared to the North Sea. Try Northumberland in Feb - enough to make a man of any shandy drinking southerner.

Cholmondley_Warner

It's all up north. ipso facto it is grim.

Barbara

Swimming in the North Sea is character-building. Chilly, though.

PatrickLondon

"Character-building" my fundament!

markrosy

Largs is generally viewed by most as the gateway to heaven.

Try sitting on the back of a yacht in Largs marina - pouring over a chart and planning a week round the Isles - deciding which distilleries to moor at. It does not get any better.

BTW : MR CW - further ignorance is not usually regarded as a valid defence (God nearly used an s in that - have been hanging around here too long) for ignorance - really will have to get you north of the A406 more often.

Cholmondley_Warner

I've been to Largs. It's grim.

I am scottish so I know scotchland is grim (if pretty in parts).

I have seen the north on the telly. They strangle kestrels there.

alya

annhig and londonengland

Porthcurno! I love that beach, lying on the sand sifting thorough the tiniest shells - It takes all day to fill a matchbox

Problem is your back gets burnt

We're thinking about a secret trip back to Cornwall (our families are so spread round the country that a visit isn't a holiday )

Porthcurno will be on our list also St Ives, Mousehole, Fowey, Padstow but most of all Hayle Towans - the walk along that beach is the best.

farrermog

For the benefit of those of us in more equable climes, how far north in Britain is it usually possible to swim 'comfortably'* in summer or early autumn without wearing a wetsuit? (I should mention that I had a master mariner grandfather from Tiree who was at sea - mainly in the Pacific - for over 60 years and could not swim - I've always assumed that it was because it wasn't worthwhile learning to swim in Scotland as it would only prolong the inevitable - by a few minutes.)

* 'comfortably' might include enduring psychological damage, such as that inflicted on the hapless C_W.

flanneruk

As societies go, they really can't be a greater load of whingers than the Glaswegians, whose ability to invent something to whine about exceeds even Liverpudlians'.

Yet, for most of the past 100 years, the children of Liverpool and Glasgow have happily gone to their local seaside resorts throughout the summer and swum. Sometimes with swimsuits, sometimes naked. But never with much complaint - and NEVER with wimpy nonsense like wetsuits.

It may be a bit more challenging on Britain's east coast, which doesn't have the advantage of the gulf stream. But I've spent hours in the Irish Sea in June and early September, and never had anything to worry about.

C-W, for all his claimed Scottish ancestry, is just a southern woos.

caroline_edinburgh

I think it depends on what you are used to. I grew up in Lincolnshire (east coast) & we used to swim in the sea in normal swimsuits, in July/August. But having got used to swimming in the Med I don't think I'd swim in the sea anywhere in the UK now. Cornwall was always quite a bit warmer than most of the rest of the UK; but the last time I went there, c.10 years ago, I saw kids wearing wetsuits and all the garages (oddly) sold them, so I think even today's kids are more used to warmer climes now. I didn't attempt the sea on that occasion but tried the open air pool in Penzance (thinking it would be warmer since it had had the chance to get warmed by the sun) - and I thought my heart would stop.

caroline_edinburgh

P.S. I should have said that on the other hand, DH's uncle swims in the sea all the year round in Hampshire - but he's obviously used to it.

farrermog

Thanks for enlightenment. What's a few degrees anyway? Where I come from, the main concern when swimming in the sea is where on the food chain you are in relation to the other creatures with whom you're sharing the water.

billbarr

Largs? Nah.

For grim, think Saltcoats.

b.

RM67

The North sea is actually quite warm (being relatively shallow and thus heating up fairly quickly). However, the colour of the sea off the east coast of England is very unappetising (brownish!).

I've also swum in Oslo and further north in the fjords in very pleasant clean and reasonably warm waters.

Contrast this with the Atlantic which is always freezing. I tried swimming off Cape Cod (which I believe is on pretty much the same lattitude as Rome) and the water was unbearable - I could actually feel my chest muscles starting to seize up and couldn't breath properly.

caroline_edinburgh

RM67 : like flanner said, though, the Atlantic coast of Britain is warmer than the east coast due to the Gulf Stream.

RM67

But the Atlantic is vast, and much deeper than the North Sea - hence doesn't heat up as well, despite having North Atlantic Drift (trendy new name for gulf stream!). I have swum in both and always find the east coast warmer, though the water looks vile in comparison, with say, Cornwall.

markrosy

RM

technically the stream of water is the Gulf stream until around the area of Bermuda then it is called the North Atlantic drift - after the Faroes it becomes something else - memory fails me - trendy - yes I always thought we were trendier this side of Bermuda!

GenuineKiwi47

TTT Blackpool in my opinion has a certain windswept charm. It may lack the sunshine hours and sophisticated veneer of English holiday resorts located in the South, but you can't beat the down-to-earth atmosphere of good old Blackpool plus a delicious feed of fish and chips !
When I visited there last summer, I photographed the beach on a stormy day. Not many bathers dared venture in ! You can see this photo at
http://www.flixya.com/photo/348041/S...ckpool_England