Skating the Wild Atlantic Way: Grief, Healing & 2,700km of Irish Coastline

What the Health

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Wednesday, 25 February 2026 - 55 minutes

At her lowest point, Becky Gilmour couldn’t leave her house. Years later, she would skateboard 2,700 kilometres along one of the most rugged and unforgiving coastlines in Europe.Becky joins host Claira Hermet for an incredible discussion about how after losing a close friend to suicide, Becky felt a pull toward the sea - the place where she had always felt most connected to him. She didn’t want to sit still in her pain. She wanted to move through it. So she set herself a challenge that felt almost impossible: to skate the entire Wild Atlantic Way, raising money for The Samaritans while carrying her life on her back.What followed was six months of physical exhaustion and emotional reckoning. Cold campsites and endless hills. Living off peanut butter and instant noodles before strangers began opening their homes and kitchens to her. Chance encounters that restored her faith in people. Roadside skateboard repairs when everything felt like it might fall apart. Murals painted county by county. We explore:What it’s really like to travel alone as a woman for six monthsThe healing of camping in the wildThe overwhelming generosity of strangers who carried her through the hardest milesPainting murals across IrelandLiving with the aftermath of sexual assault and the lingering impact on safety and trustThe accidental “date” story that brought rare comic relief to a heavy journeyBecky Gilmour: https://www.beckysarthouse.com/

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