Are trips to saunas replacing visits to the local pub? 

While previously common in many countries in continental Europe, their popularity has surged in recent years in Ireland. 

There are currently around 130 outdoor saunas in Ireland and they increasingly popular as a place to hang out and socialise at. 

On Moncrieff, Rosanna Cooney, author of Sweathouse: The New & The Ancient Irish Sauna Tradition, said much of their popularity can be traced to a desire to be close to nature. 

“About 10 years ago, saunas started to be put out into the wild,” she said. 

“Mobiles saunas by rivers, by the seaside, in valleys, in forests - and that’s where the explosion that we’re now seeing is coming from. 

“This kind of return to nature.” 

A woman sits in her new mobile wood in Cork, Ireland. Picture by: David Creedon / Alamy Live News.

Ms Cooney continued that Irish people like to have a view when they sauna and many of the new ones have been installed with “vast” windows that mean people can gaze out to sea or over nearby fields.  

“I had this great Finnish woman over with me recently,” she recalled. 

“She said, ‘You guys are so obsessed with windows, why do you want everyone to watch you?’ 

“In Finland, they have a tiny slit of a window or it’s almost in total darkness because it’s a much more internal experience. 

“Whereas in Ireland, we’ve created this bright, light, chatty space.” 

A pop-up wood-fired mobile sauna. Picture by: Alex Ramsay / Alamy.

Experts also believe that taking a regular sauna is good for a person’s mental and cardiovascular health.

“More research needs to be done on all these long-term benefits,” Ms Cooney said. 

“It’s really interesting and promising and you can get excited by the research because it’s doing all the research for your cardiovascular system. 

“But I think, in the short-term, generally what you feel after a sauna is the same endorphin rush that you get if you go for a run.” 

Main image: Two women relax in a sauna. Picture by: Alamy.com.