Saunas are hot in every sense of the word. They’re also everywhere – in your social feeds with friends snapping themselves mid-roast, on rooftops and in people’s front gardens. Mobile units dot piers and coves around the entire coastline.
For many of us, the social element is the clincher. But the art of sauna, a practice that has its origins in health, has been part of the Finnish way of life for thousands of years.
Inscribed on the representative list of UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage of humanity five years ago, it’s caught a lot of heat in Ireland with löyly, the Finnish word for the sudden burst of steam that surges through the air when you ladle water on the stones, enchanting all demographics. None more than sports and fitness fans.
Carpenter and recovery-fan John Needham grew up in Louisburg, Co Mayo with childhood friends, Matthew Dempsey, now a sports physiotherapist, and Ciaran O’Malley, an electrician.
RM Block
He played rugby as a teen and recalls being brought into Westport leisure centre and made to do the sauna and ice bath treatments from the age of about 17. “Most people did not want to go. There were plenty of squeals but that’s the competitive point.”
The trio were all tradesmen with similar sports backgrounds. Needham was building a sauna for himself about a decade ago and his friends gave him a hand. They enjoyed working together and decided to set up The Sauna Craft Co, supplying wellness pods to homes, as well as Sláinte Sauna, public saunas you pay to attend in Sandymount, Dublin 4 and Westport.
Word soon got out, with elite sportspeople in particular noting what was on offer. The sports medicine, strength and conditioning (SSC) coach of the All Blacks, Nicholas Gill, heard about them and asked them to install a mobile sauna and an ice bath for the team at the Radisson Blu in Stillorgan. The inflatable ice baths measured 1200cm by 600cm and were “big enough to get eight lads in. That was massive with the All Blacks,” he recalls. “Some stayed in 10 minutes”.
That time period demonstrates endurance and the team’s competitive spirit. Then the Wallabies, the Australian rugby team, got in touch. Argentina also booked. And the Irish team’s back-room people got in touch.
They’ve been such a sizzling success that Leinster and Ireland centre Robbie Henshaw had the lads install a set-up for him in the back garden of his home.
“Recovery’s become a priority for me. The sauna and ice bath help me stay on top of the workload, manage small niggles, and keep my body in a place where I can train and perform consistently. It’s about doing the simple things well, day after day,” Henshaw says.
In setting up the business, Needham checked the competition in Norway and Finland, and talked to people in eastern Europe. Every nation likes to sauna differently. “In Finland they don’t like temperatures over 90 degrees. In Hungary and Latvia, they like it at between 110 and 120 degrees, while in Ireland we like it at 100 degrees.”
Saunas are hot, he says. “Four years ago, nobody was buying saunas. Now we get about 20 emails a day.” At Sláinte Saunas a two-by-two-metre-barrel sauna with a six-kilowatt electric heater costs €4,200, while the same size, with a wood-burning stove costs €4,500.” Both sell equally well but there are usage caveats.
The wood-burning sauna has a nice organic feel and offers nicer heat, but doesn’t work in built-up areas where he counsels choosing the electric option.
Build your own sauna (BYOS)
About 150 metres from the crescent-shaped Reen beach on the edge of Derrynane, Daniel O’Connell’s Co Kerry homestead, electrician Cian Boland renovated two adjoining cottages. He spent his weekends constructing a sauna out the back that he plans to offer as an add-on to visitors, especially those comi ng in shoulder and off seasons.
But for now, it’s a place for him and his friends to gather, shoot the breeze and run the short distance down to the water to cool off. They also have the option to take a dip in a step down into plunge pool he’s built using old stone. It is filled with water softened by its journey down the mountain where it is redirected to pool within its stone surrounds. It is a work of art.
Before construction, Boland spent a lot of time looking at sauna videos online, before he dug a foundation, cast it in concrete and then built a timber frame. He wrapped it in felt and plywood sheeting on the exterior, adding rolls of eco-insulation that he lined in a reflective foil to cast the heat back into the space.
This was battened using non-treated timber, so that it would be non-toxic when the temperatures rise. The interior features black alder, a native species that he says has similar properties to cedar.
He chose a two-tone look for the seating using aspen, a white timber, on the seats to give contrast. For ambience he added soft strip lighting, and a dressingroom area. This is made of larch and partially charred to bring out its grain, the floor tiled in a black limestone look.
The four metre long by 2.5 metre wide space is long enough to stretch out flat in it and can comfortably fit up to eight.
A slim clerestory window at the top helps to bring light in, while a big picture window looks up at the Sugarloaf Mountain.
He bought the pillar-shaped wood-burning online from Finnish company Harvia. Its generous stone capacity ensures excellent steam production. He uses the soft mountain water on the stones. He sometimes adds essential oils. “I’m partial to lavender and have a few blends too, lavender and clary sage.”
He burns kiln-dried birch or beech that he buys by the pallet. “The birch smells unbelievable.”
A lot of work went into it. And it’s been a bit of a labour of love, for excluding the hours he’s put into its design and construction, he estimates it has cost about €10,000, with each sauna costing between €5 and €6 in wood and electricity.
It was a rewarding project, he says. “It’s even better than how I imagined and sketched it. I still get goosebumps inside it. It is a very special space.”
A sauna within a home
Limerick-based Deirdre Quirke prefers to sauna indoors in the creature comforts of her own home. She bought hers off the shelf from A Room Outside, on the city’s Ballysimon Road, which stocks a wide selection of steam and outdoor options, as well as infrared designs. Hers is about the size of a wardrobe, measuring 1.9 metres high, and 90cm wide and deep, so it could technically be installed as part of a wardrobe system or into a bathroom that is being designed from plans. If you do so, you should leave space on top for ventilation and to be able to open the door, says owner of A Room Outside, Liam Whelan, who also counsels opening a window to allow fresh air to circulate.
Originally, Quirke had wanted hers to be in her upstairs bathroom, but the device is plugged into the electric system using a three-pin plug, something that isn’t considered safe in a bathroom setting. So, instead, she installed it in the guest room, which is next to the bathroom, and means she can jump straight into the shower afterwards.
Her Saulo full spectrum infrared for one-person, which costs €1,999, has a glass-fronted door, and three heat panels, one on each side and one that sits into the back.
She first came across this type of sauna in a friend’s house in Drumaheir, Co Leitrim. It was years back, but it has since been on her “must-have list” when she bought her own home.
“It’s really good for muscles, back, circulation, for having a detox and getting a good sleep,” she explains. She uses it for durations of 30 minutes, fragrancing it with essential oils, and has a preference for eucalyptus or pine.
She runs hers at sixty degrees. “It’s a gentle type of heat. You’re not heating up the space, so it still feels nice and fresh.”
She’s had the family over to try it out. “My mam loved it. My dad thought it was a very silly buy.” For her, “it’s an investment in yourself. That’s how I see it.”
There is nothing like having a sauna to yourself, she says. “I can be naked. I can throw on a podcast or throw on some 1970s road trip music, gentle not loud. It’s so nice for switching off.”
