A DUNDEE-BORN man has spoken of his determination to swim Scotland’s killer sea whirlpool despite being warned against it by fisherman, coastguards and the navy.

Frank Chalmers (48), a member of Ye Amphibious Ancients Bathing Association in Broughty Ferry, said it has always been his ambition to swim the 330-foot deep, 1466 yards wide, Gulf of Corryvreckan between the Inner Hebridean islands of Jura and Scarba.

The whirlpool—the sixth largest in the world—has claimed many lives and can be heard up to 10 miles away.

Frank paid £495 for the adventure trip, organised by holiday firm Swimtrek, and will join five others on the walking and swimming trek across six Inner Hebrides islands.

He has already completed swimtreks with the firm on the Greek Islands, which are longer.

He prepared for next week’s challenge by completing a five-mile swim from Broughty Ferry to Woodhaven with the Phibbies at the weekend.

“The important thing was getting re-acclimatised to the cold water, because it will be a wee bit chilly, although we get the Gulf stream so it will not be as cold as the River Tay,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to it. I took up serious training again, four or five months ago after 30 years.

“When I saw the holiday organised in Greece it gave me an incentive to get back into shape.

“You can swim longer distances in Greece because the water is warm and the experience encouraged me to do the Scottish one. What attracted me to the Hebrides swim was the Corryvreckan.

“I’d heard about it before and it had always been an ambition of mine to swim it.

“I’ve had an interest in it since reading Roger Deakin’s book about his experience of the Corryvreckan in 1997.

“Swimtrek’s safety measures are absolutely meticulous. Each group will have a safety boat with them, and there will also be a channel swimmer alongside if anyone gets into difficulties.”

The only recorded swimmer to have conquered the whirlpool was George Orwell’s brother-in-law and farm manager at the time, Bill Dunn, who, in the late 1940s, smothered himself in sheep fat to ward off the cold and swam the Corryvreckan, watched all the time by men in closely attending boats.

The whirlpool is created when flood tides running at about 13mph collide with a steep, pyramid shaped column of rock which rises from the seabed within 90-feet of the surface.

The Royal Navy classifies the stretch of water as “un-navigable.”