THREE hundred swimmers took part in this year's Brownsea Island Swim.

Organised by the RLSS Poole Lifeguards, swimmers circumnavigated the island, covering 6.5km.

Swim organiser Mark Shakles said: "This has become one of the most iconic swims on the open water swim calendar, with all 300 places being snapped up within 15 minutes of the entry forms going live."

The swim has been held since 1991 - but in 2009 organisers started to encourage participants to raise sponsorship for charities of their choice.

A total of £27,764 has been raised this year, bringing the total sum raised by the event to £151,955 since 2009.

Mark said: "This is something that RLSS Poole Lifeguard and all our supporters that help on the day, should feel extremely proud of.

"The swim starts and finishes on the private beach, within the grounds of the wonderful Brownsea Castle, for which we also extend a huge thanks to the John Lewis Partnership who also supply a very welcome cup of home made soup and bread roll for all the swimmers once they have finished their swim."

The event took place in Poole Harbour on July 23.