Wild Water Woman

An interview with Julie Wilson Nimmo

Catherine Lawson

If, like me, you’ve been watching the growing interest in cold water therapy from afar you’re probably wondering what makes those brave souls walk willingly, some might say joyfully, into the wild waters of Scotland. It’s a question actress and Soulful Sunday teacher, Julie Nimmo, is passionate about answering having experienced first-hand the health benefits for herself and countless others. I catch up with her the day before she sets off with husband, Greg Hemphill, for a month of filming in the Scottish Islands where they’ll embark on a whole new series of swimming adventures in some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes.

Having been introduced to cold water therapy during Covid when friends sent her videos of themselves taking the plunge and enjoying the benefits, she immediately got on board and found herself hooked.

“The benefits were apparent really quickly to people like my sister and my pals who told me I looked different and seemed more settled. I was going through peri-menopause at the time and this seemed to be the thing that was really helping me. My anxiety would still be up and down but my mood was better. There were things that I didn’t even know were broken until I went into that water.”

With the benefits being as immediate as they were, Julie very quickly realised that the water was where she needed to be to support her with the physical, mental and emotional changes brought about by the menopause.

“You think your 40s are difficult and then you hit your 50s. There’s an absolute seismic shift. I decided I couldn’t take it lying down so I chose to up the yoga, up the cold water swimming, get out on my bike again, and I started lifting weights out of nowhere. If you’re feeling that shift to do things differently, then do it. There are only so many things which are free in life and your instinct is one of them so go with it.”

And go with it she did. From those first steps into cold water where the focus was on immersion and feet were firmly on the ground, she was soon venturing further afield supported by Greg who is a keen swimmer himself. On the shores of Elie, where they now live permanently, Julie would watch their two boys jump off the pier with the abandon of youth while she maintained a safe toe-in-the-water distance.

Eventually Greg managed to persuade her to take the chilly plunge (he still has the video of her screaming her way into the sea at Ruby Bay) and before long he was in there swimming alongside her.
“Then for me it changed because I had Greg with me and we sort of egged each other on and it just grew from there. Like anything you get into, I started to explore it more, reading about it online and thinking about what I wanted out

Wild water swimming soon became part of their everyday lives and they found themselves travelling with dry robes at the ready in case the opportunity for a swim presented itself. It was during a trip to Inverness and a spontaneous stop off at Dores Beach that Julie had the idea to take a campervan round Scotland for a series of wild swims, filming the chat and the people she met along the way. She shared her idea with Greg who was immediately sold on it and within an hour of reaching out to the BBC with her proposal, the pilot had been secured. Soon after, Jules and Greg’s Wild Swims was commissioned. It aired in January 2024 and as we’re chatting, Julie is in the midst of packing as they prepare to head off to film Jules and Greg’s Wild Swims Season 2: The Island Adventure.

It’s not surprising that having been the inspiration for the TV programme, Dores Beach was one of the locations featured in Season1; it’s a swim which Julie shares as one of her all-time favourites.

“That one in particular has a special place in my heart because that’s where we first came up with the idea for the show, then six months later we were back on that beach filming. It was the most beautiful of days and the sun was beating down. It’s really, really deep in Loch Ness – quite creepy actually – but when I didn’t think about the Loch Ness monster I was fine. We swam with a very strong group of swimmers of all ages. I knew Greg was always going to go out to the swim point and my director wasn’t putting any pressure on me at all – he just wanted me to go as far as I could and wanted to capture the chat in the water – but half way through I got talking to this woman who had always wanted to swim out to that point and something I got from her made me want to try it and I actually did it. Something happens to you in the water – you lose yourself in it and that’s what happened to me that day. I just loved it.”

Through the Soulful Sunday sessions that she teaches in Elie, Julie shares her love of water with others who take their first steps into the life-changing world of cold-water therapy on the shores of the Firth of Forth.

“I take people for a yoga session on the beach and then into the water and nine times out of ten it’s people who haven’t been in the water before. I tell them the water’s the best bit. I can’t tell you how many times people have cried in that water. I tell them that whatever comes out, comes out – it might be swearing it might be crying – just let it out. As a teacher it’s really rewarding when you see them let themselves go. Something gets tapped in the water.”
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Training to be a yoga teacher, leading Soulful Sunday sessions and filming Jules and Greg’s Wild Swims are all new directions in Julie’s life which embrace a renewed focus on wellbeing and a determination to reclaim parts of herself which got lost along the way.

“If you’d told me at 40 that I would be doing this I’d tell you that you had the wrong person but it actually makes sense when I stop and think about it. When I was a wee girl I never sat still. I was outside all the time, I was in the water every chance I got and you forget that. Something happens in the middle and you get caught up in life – your sense of adventure goes down. One of the lovely things which comes at this stage is trying to get an adventure for yourself again… I’ve got time now to do these things which I wouldn’t have had time for before.”

With so many widely reported health benefits linked to cold water therapy including emotional healing, decreased stress levels, improved circulation, reduced inflammation, relief from menopause symptoms and boosted metabolism to name but a few, it’s understandable why so many people are curious about the magic of water. For those who are keen to give it a go, trying it out on safe shores with a group of like-minded individuals being led by an experienced teacher is a recommended first step. I ask Julie what she’d say to those who are on the fence when it comes to dipping their toes in the water.

“It’s simple. Do you want to sit on that fence until you get a skelf in your ar** or do you want to come along and have a story to tell? It might be that your story is that you hate it but it’s still your story. You need to jump off the fence and come down – you’ll be welcomed with open arms. Just give it a go.”

Personally, I don’t need any more encouragement. If it can offer me the kind of joie de vivre which radiates from Julie as she talks, I’m ready to jump
right in.