Destination St Kilda for charity swim 3/6/14
The World Heritage Site of St Kilda is the final destination for a hardy group who are aiming to swim there from the Isle of Harris in the first ever charity challenge of its kind.
The St Kilda Swim team aim to swim the distance of around 60 miles in a stretch of the North Atlantic Ocean that is renowned for rough seas and unpredictable currents. To date, no one has ever attempted this swim before.
The swim, which is scheduled for the end of this month is estimated to take around
50 hours, with a team of nine swimmers swimming relay-
The fundraisers are supporting Yorkhill Children’s Charity, the Leanne Fund and The Fishermen’s Mission.
Alan Mackenzie of VisitScotland said: “I would like to wish the whole team the best of luck in their summer challenge and what better sight to be heading for, than the beautiful location of St Kilda? Hopefully they will get the chance to experience this unique natural environment, with its amazing cliffs and seabird colonies at the end of their challenge. “
Many of The St Kilda Swim team were part of the very successful fundraising challenge ‘The Big Minch Swim,’ which took place in June 2012. This saw the team swim from Ullapool in the north west of Scotland, to Stornoway in the Isle of Lewis – a distance of 50 miles open water, which they completed in 34 hours.
Almost £23,500 was raised for the RNLI through The Big Minch Swim and a Motion was even passed in the Scottish Parliament congratulating the team as the first people to ever swim that stretch of water.