Rory Kaye swam it in 12 hours 24 minutes on 24 August, ratified 1 September. He went Scotland to Ireland, the rare direction: only four on record have.

A 16-year-old from Macclesfield has had a North Channel solo swim entered on the official register. Rory Kaye crossed between Scotland and Northern Ireland on Monday 24 August in 12 hours, 24 minutes and 53 seconds. The Irish Long Distance Swimming Association ratified the swim on Tuesday 1 September (ILDSA swim record 26141).

The North Channel is one of the Ocean’s Seven, the marathon swimming set that open-water swimmers treat as the equivalent of the seven summits. Rules bar wetsuits. The ILDSA’s recorded route distance is 35 kilometres.

What the register records

The association’s entry for the swim gives the following:

  • Start: Salt Pan Bay, Scotland, at 07.58 BST on 24 August
  • Finish: the railings at the Gobbins cliff face, Islandmagee, County Antrim, at 20.23 BST
  • Time: 12 hours, 24 minutes, 53 seconds
  • Water temperature: 14.8C to 15.8C, starting at 15.2C
  • Observer: David Smyth. Pilot: Connla Conway
  • Crew: Nikki Pope, listed as coach, Phil Kaye, listed as dad, and Jennifer Fitzgerald

The observer’s log on the record describes a sunny day with more swell for about three hours around halfway, jellyfish stings that did not trouble the swimmer until the finish, and feeding on the move except at what the log calls treat time.

He swam it the unusual way round

Almost nobody swims the North Channel from Scotland. The crossing is normally made from Donaghadee or Robbie’s Point in County Down, finishing on the Galloway coast near Portpatrick.

The Macclesfield Times downloaded the association’s full solo register, which holds 205 entries going back to Tom Blower’s first crossing in 1947. Of the 106 one-way solos with start and finish positions recorded, 102 ran Ireland to Scotland. Four ran the other way. Rory Kaye’s is the most recent of those four (ILDSA North Channel solo swims).

Rory Kaye's North Channel crossing, 24 August 2026 Route diagram. Start Salt Pan Bay, Scotland, 7.58am BST. Finish the Gobbins cliff face, Islandmagee, County Antrim, 8.23pm BST. Time 12 hours 24 minutes 53 seconds over a recorded route distance of 35 kilometres, in water of 14.8 to 15.8 degrees Celsius. Four of the 106 recorded one-way crossings ran Scotland to Ireland; 102 ran the other way. Source: Irish Long Distance Swimming Association solo register. Scotland to Ireland: the rare direction Rory Kaye, North Channel solo, Monday 24 August 2026 07.58 20.23 Salt Pan Bay, Scotland The Gobbins, Islandmagee, County Antrim 12h 24m 53s 35km route, water 14.8C to 15.8C Of the 106 one-way solo crossings with positions on the register: 102 ran Ireland to Scotland 4 ran Scotland to Ireland Source: Irish Long Distance Swimming Association solo register. Graphic by The Macclesfield Times
Rory Kaye started in Scotland and finished in County Antrim, the reverse of the standard route. Graphic by The Macclesfield Times.

The age claim, checked

The announcement sent to this paper described Rory Kaye as the youngest Englishman to swim the North Channel. We checked it against the register rather than take it on trust.

The register carries a date of birth for 112 of its 205 solo entries. Rory Kaye’s is given as 24 September 2009, which made him 16 on the day, a month short of his 17th birthday. No English swimmer with a recorded date of birth was younger at the time of their crossing. So the claim holds on the association’s own data, with one caveat worth stating: the register does not carry a date of birth for the other 93 entries, so it cannot settle the question for those.

He is not the youngest overall. Oscar Black of Lurgan swam the North Channel at 15 in July 2025, and was given a civic reception for it (Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council).

The money goes to Mencap

The swim is one of four challenges Rory Kaye is doing this year for Mencap, the learning disability charity. His fundraising page had raised £4,408.65 plus £330.63 in Gift Aid from 43 donations when we checked on 4 September (JustGiving).

His page says last year’s money paid for a swimming programme for under-fives with special educational needs and disabilities. Two challenges are still to come: the 20 Bridges solo around Manhattan, which he puts at 48.5km, and the Catalina Channel in California.

The Beech Hall connection

The coach recorded on the boat, Nikki Pope, coaches the English Channel relay squad at Beech Hall School in Macclesfield. The school’s teams swim the Channel for Mencap under the name Mencap Marvels.

Phil Kaye’s own fundraising page says seven Beech Hall relay teams have raised £85,000 for the charity since 2019, with a target of £100,000 (JustGiving). An earlier page for the squad describes winter training in seas and lakes at temperatures as low as 4C, and breaking ice on a pool (JustGiving).

What it means for you

  • The donation page is justgiving.com/page/rory-kaye-3. Mencap is registered charity 222377.
  • If you want to check the swim yourself, the ILDSA publishes every ratified crossing at ildsa.info. Ratification is not automatic: this one was submitted on 27 August, reviewed on 1 September and signed off the same day.
  • Open-water swimming in the Macclesfield area is not the same proposition. The North Channel is piloted, observed and crewed. Nothing in this article is an argument for swimming unaccompanied in a river or reservoir.

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