About Us

Cults Otters is the local amateur swimming club serving Culter, Milltimber, Bieldside,  Cults and surrounding areas. We have been active for over 50 years and have enjoyed a long association with the Cults Academy facilities.

Cults Otters is a non-profit making swimming club affiliated to the Scottish Amateur Swimming Association (SASA) and to the SASA North District. Cults Otters is a partner club of the University of Aberdeen Performance Program (UoA). UoA was formed to promote performance swimming in the North East of Scotland and brings together the most talented swimmers from its five partnership City clubs.

We work closely with Sport Aberdeen, which delivers the early stages swimming lessons through its Aquatics programme.  Children can enter the Cults Otters Development programme when they have reached Level 4 or ‘Club Ready’ with Sport Aberdeen or equivalent, and we will ensure a smooth progression to District level competitive swimming and beyond.  Children who have learned to swim elsewhere are also most welcome to come for a trial.

Cults Otters focuses on teaching swimmers who are developing their ability (Pre-competitive squads), coaching swimmers who have mastered the basics in all 4 four strokes and wish to compete (Competitive squads) and swimmers who wish to train and compete at a reduced level (Youth squad).

Our top competitive swimmers can progress into the University of Aberdeen Performance Swim Team (UoA) which is run by professional swimming coaches employed by Aberdeen Sports Village. UoA training is in the 50m pool in the Aberdeen Aquatics Centre.

Swimmers who do not wish to train competitively can feed into other Sport Aberdeen and Aberdeen Sports Village initiatives such as rookie life-saving, water polo, diving and synchronised swimming.

Cults Otters has produced a number of swimmers who have achieved international success including Beverly Robertson (Commonwealth Games 1998), Robbie Renwick (Commonwealth Games 2006, 2010, 2014 and Olympic Games 2008 & 2012) and Para swimmer Toni Shaw (Commonwealth Games 2018, Tokyo Paralympics 2020).