Portobello locals were in for a surprise on Tuesday evening when 25 men and a piper launched themselves into the freezing waters to celebrate the Summer solstice.
Crowds gathered to film the wild swimmers as they launched themselves into the north sea on Tuesday evening.
The event was organised by Blue Balls Edinburgh, a men's mental health organisation that runs wild swimming events in Lothian.
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The group was founded by Marc Millar, 48, at the end of lockdown as everyone was trapped inside their houses, isolated, with little to do. The weekly swim meets give men the chance to improve their mental and physical health and support one another.
To celebrate the solstice, the group organised an impromptu dip in Portobello beach at around the time of the sunset. While it was only put together in the space of a few hours, 25 people still made the dip into the water.
One of the swimmers was Hugh Mackay, an army piper and mental health advocate himself. Without telling any other attendees he decided to bring his pipes with him and serenade the swimmers as they got into the water.
As crowds sat at campfires enjoying the sunset, many gathered to listen to the pipes and record the peculiar event.
We spoke to Marc Millar, founder of Blue Balls Edinburgh, who said: “So we have weekly swims every Sunday but a lot of guys wanted to do a solstice swim so we worked out what time the sun was going down and within about four hours we got 25 people down. One person, who’s a piper in the army, decided to bring his pipes down.
“He didn’t tell anyone, he just surprised us all by playing when everyone went in the water and then again when they were all coming out. He even went for a dip himself.
“There were lots of people trying to take pictures and quite a big crowd came. Someone posted it on a Portobello group and I think it got something like five thousand views.
“I think it just hit a note with people because the water was so calm and everyone was enjoying stuff with fires on the beach and everyone was just enjoying it and to hear the bagpipes was just quite emotional. Maybe seeing about 30 middle aged men in their speedos in the water didn’t help”
It certainly seemed to strike a chord with people on social media, with one person saying: “Bloomin love this!! Can they come back on Sunday when I’m there please.”
