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28th January 2025
11:28am GMT
It’s a freezing January morning—the kind where the air bites your arse and the sea looks like it’s plotting your demise. I’m in Glasthule, standing in front of what looks like a wooden barrel someone rolled off a Scandinavian hillside. Inside: people are sardined together, sweating through their togs, eyes half-closed in near-religious focus. Outside: dry-robed figures march toward the water like they’re heading to war.
The heat spikes, and the sauna hisses like it’s alive. You’d think no one here is coping. But they are. They’re thriving.
Dublin found its new obsession in 2024: the sauna. Now in 2025, sauna culture is set to become 'the thing'. Barrel saunas have popped up everywhere: beaches, riverbanks, rooftops, Dundrum. With new ones being added seemingly every week. You name a scenic spot, and chances are someone parked a sauna on it. Or there's a tender out for one. It has become Dublin’s most Instagrammable way to feel like you’ve been hit by a truck and reborn within the hour.
There isn’t much data on global or nationwide sauna use, but the market does anecdotally at least seem to have revived, driven mainly by users seeking health benefits. “It’s more common now to wake up on a Saturday morning and go for your hike, sauna, coffee, and healthy lunch than it is to wake up at noon, hungover,” says Matthew Burke, who runs saunas in Bray and Dundrum. “I’d say on average, young people are doing that much more now.”
@niall.keogh New Sauna in North Dublin #thingstodoindublin #sauna ♬ Show Me the Good Stuff - Becca Lynn
To me, saunas seemed to have arrived out of nowhere via poshdom. In my head it was something you did if you had the money to pay for a fancy country club á la Richard and Emily Gilmore. But in this instance, I am all kinds of wrong.
Saunas, steam baths, and sweat lodges are baked into cultural traditions across the globe, from Native American sweat lodges to Korean jjimjilbangs to Scandinavian sauna rituals. And, as it turns out, Ireland has its own sweating history. Before we got our heads turned by Finnish cabins and TikTok trends, we had sweat houses: low stone domes heated by turf fires. They were rough, they were primal, and they were ours.
With this trend/renaissance, it’s like we as a nation are waking up a cultural muscle memory. Modern saunas are sleeker. The views are better, but the premise remains the same: sweat it out, cool it down. Wash, rinse, repeat as needed.
While the lifespan of wellness trends is increasingly fleeting, the sauna looks set to become as fixed a part of daily life as popping out for a coffee. Some saunas are even teaming up with cafes to offer a wholistic experience with locally roasted coffee and home made pastries. Like cafés before them, saunas deliver community in opt-in doses, and they offer something beneficial—physically, emotionally, viscerally. Some would even say spiritually.
@discoverdublin The Sauna Village in Dublin State-of-the-art sauna facility in the heart of Inchicore. This sanctuary offers five distinctive sauna experiences, each crafted to provide unique benefits and an unforgettable experience. Alongside their five distinctive sauna experiences, they offer state-of-the-art plunge pools at three different temperatures—cold, tepid, and warm—designed to enhance your sauna sessions and invigorate your senses. The hot box sauna is strictly over 18s For more information and to book see thehotboxsauna.ie @thehotboxsauna #dublin #ireland #irish #europe ♬ BIRDS OF A FEATHER - Billie Eilish
There’s plenty of ‘science’ on the subject. Saunas have been linked to everything from improved cardiovascular health to reduced stress. “Originally, if you wanted a sauna, you had to pay loads to go into a spa hotel,” Burke explains. “Now, you can do pay-as-you-go for an hour, for 15 or 17.50, versus 300 quid for a night in some spa down the country.” The affordability of urban saunas has democratised what was once a luxury experience into a regular ritual. As approachable as a fitness class.
That accessibility, combined with social media, has made the sauna a full-blown phenomenon. “Definitely, social media has helped,” Burke admits. The steamy aesthetic of a wood-fired hut against an icy Irish horizon? That’s a shot. Perfectly honed, scantily clad gym bodies? That’s the hook. Steam condensing on a glass door, framed just right? Art. Combine that and you have viral potential, locked and loaded. Those videos go from naught to 90 faster than your ma when she finds out you forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer.
Then that trickles down to the normies. You see a friend post their flushed, blissed-out face post-dip, and suddenly you’re two clicks away from booking your own session. Like many wellness trends it’s a self-sustaining ecosystem of health and content. But unlike most viral trends, this one sticks. You do it once; you get it. You go back. Maybe you bring a friend to one of the many saunas in Dublin.
@heyitsgra €17 sauna experience in dublin that you need to try out 🧘♀️ Would 100% recommend booking a table in @rascalsbrewing for after (we were super lucky we got a table!!) Shout out to @DUBLIN SOCIAL for this recommendation! #dublin #dublinsauna #dublinspa #dublinireland #ireland #thingstodoindublin #dublincity #CapCut #fyp #foryoupage #viral #xycba ♬ water (instrumental) - no/vox & karaokey
What’s more interesting about this social space is that it’s… well, sober. “Instead of going out drinking, now people are doing something healthy for socializing,” Burke says. “People complain sometimes that the sauna is too loud, but we’re Irish. We talk. We’ve taken sauna culture and added our own twist.” Unlike a night out, where you’re shouting over music, here you’re sweating beside strangers, trading tips on breathing through the heat, and daring each other into the sea.
Yet, despite their content-farming potential, saunas are literal phone killers. You can’t bring your phone in unless you want it steamed like a lobster. So you’re left with no choice but to exist in the moment.Albeit the moment before or after you capture, edit, or post your content. In that moment there's No scrolling, no notifications, no curated distractions. Just you, your breath, and the cadre of vagabonds doing the exact same thing.
“It’s a reset for your brain,” Burke says. “The heat forces you to be still. The cold shocks you awake. And for an hour, the only thing you’re thinking about is getting through the next round.”
For a generation raised on comfort and convenience at all costs, the sauna is a shock to the system. People who usually scroll for distraction and soften every rough edge are forced to confront their inner demons in a way that is more vulnerable than raw-dogging a flight. The sauna demands endurance, discomfort, and total presence. And somehow, that genuinely feels better than anything else.
@fadsaoilsaunas New Year, same sauna routine 🧖🏼♀️ #sauna #fadsaoilsaunas #fadsaoil #saunas #dublin #ireland ♬ Use this sound to go viral - Andrew
So is the sauna the new pub? Probably not. Is it just another trend? Also, probably not. It’s here to stay and become it's own thing, and only time will tell is what that is.
Here's some saunas in Dublin if you wanna check it out for yourselves:
The Hot Box Sauna Village
Inchicore, Dublin 8
Opened in August 2024, this state-of-the-art facility features five uniquely designed saunas and three outdoor plunge pools at varying temperatures.
Helios Sauna
Dundrum Village, Dublin 14
Launched in 2024, Helios offers a Roman Baths-style experience with two outdoor saunas, an ice bath, and a hot tub in a tiled courtyard setting.
The Barrel Sauna
Dundrum, Tallaght, and Greystones
Known for their handcrafted barrel saunas, The Barrel Sauna has expanded to multiple locations, including Dundrum and Tallaght in Dublin, providing traditional sauna experiences complemented by cold plunge facilities.
The Outcast Saunas
Stoneybatter, Dublin 7
This venue focuses on community and wellness, offering outdoor saunas and cold plunge facilities in a modern, accessible setting.
Spir Sauna
Dublin
Spir Sauna provides a hot and cold urban experience with a handmade, bespoke wood-fired sauna complemented by chilled and filtered cold plunge facilities.
Saunos
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
Located at Wanderers Football Club, Saunos offers an eight to ten-person wood-fired sauna and chilly steel plunge pools, providing a relaxing and rejuvenating experience.
Sandycove Store and Yard
Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
After a dip in the Forty Foot, visitors can enjoy private sauna sessions ranging from 30 minutes to an hour, with group slots available for larger parties.
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