Wick's Tidal Pools – Two Sea Swims and Lunch on the Quay
A few hours.
The route
Wick has two old seawater pools cut into its rocky shore, one on each side of the bay, both looked after by local volunteers and free for anyone to swim in.
Start with a dip at the Trinkie below the South Head cliffs, warm up over lunch by the boats at Wickers World, then walk round to the whitewashed North Baths for a second swim. It's a day for confident sea swimmers and dippers, and a fine coastal wander for everyone else.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The nearest of ours is House of the Northern Gate, 16 miles away. Sleeps 18.
The day
Wick
Two seawater pools on either side of the bay, with the North Sea just beyond their walls. Between the swims, a warming lunch on the quay among the fishing boats.
About four hoursAbout 1.5 miles on foot
The Trinkie
An attraction
The Trinkie is on the South Head, south of the harbour, where a small car park sits at the end of the shore road just beyond the pool. It's a seawater pool carved from an old quarry in the rocks below the cliffs, formally opened in the 1920s and cleaned and painted every year by the Trinkie Heritage Preservation Group. It's free and open all year, and the way down is over rocks, so it isn't step-free. Water Safety Scotland's advice for open water: check the weather and the tide before you go, swim with someone, get into cold water slowly, and if in doubt, don't go in. If the cold takes your breath away, lean back and float with your arms and legs out for 60 to 90 seconds until your breathing settles, then swim to the side or call for help. From the poolside, look out for seals, seabirds and the odd dolphin.
5 min by car
Wickers World
Lunch
Drive 5 minutes back into town for lunch at Wickers World on Harbour Quay, the white café with a lighthouse on its sign looking over the boats in the marina. Park along the quay. It serves all-day breakfasts, homemade soup, daily specials and plenty of home baking, and it opens Monday to Saturday from 9am; it's shut on Sundays. Children are welcome, and it's said to be step-free, with toilets. On a Sunday, or if it's full, No 1 Bistro at Mackays Hotel, about eight minutes' walk away, serves lunch.
15 min on foot
The North Baths
Leave the car on Harbour Quay for the 15-minute walk round to the North Baths, on the rocks just outside the harbour mouth on its north side. Volunteers have brought this old pool back to life, and they paint its walls white at their yearly clean-up. It's free and open all year, with no lifeguard and no changing room, so bring a towel and something warm to change into. Take care on the rocks and bring suitable footwear. The same Water Safety Scotland advice holds: check the weather and the tide, swim with someone, get in slowly, and if in doubt, don't go in. Then walk back to the car on the quay.
If it rains
Both pools are out in the open: in rain or a strong wind leave the swims for another day. Wickers World is under a roof, and on a wet day the Wick Heritage Centre on Bank Row, a couple of minutes away, is open from May to October.
No 1 Bistro, a restaurant in Wick.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Wick.
Photograph by Dariusz Sapalski via Google