A coasteering weekend in Northern Ireland
Warm fires and cosy pubs? Pah! Jeremy Head plunges into surging seas, hikes windswept mountains and wallows in weed in County Down’s great outdoors
“It’s as easy as falling off a rock,” Martin assured me. “But it’s important to know how deep the water is first.”
The atmosphere was relaxed but safety was high on the agenda as I prepared to leap and flounder about the craggy coastline of Northern Ireland.
“Coasteering is about really exploring the shore up close – but it’s not about taking risks,” Martin continued. “Now, can everybody swim?”
And coasteering – the act of advancing along the intertidal zone of a rocky coastline on foot or by swimming – isn’t new either: its roots lay in the Victorian craze for collecting eggs from seabirds’ nests high up on the cliffs.
“The idea then was to avoid getting wet. These days that’s the whole point!” Martin laughed as we bounded down to the sea.
Once we’d got all the kit on – including gloves, trainers and buoyancy vests – we started on relatively flat terrain. Martin showed us how different coloured rock varied in slipperiness, demonstrating how to test each foot- and hand-hold before putting too much weight on it.
