‘Finland’s got more saunas than people, and it’s the happiest country year on year’
The Sauna at the Cottage in Ashleworth, Gloucestershire(Image: Verity Lacey)
More people are trading in pubs for plunges, as sauna culture has made a huge splash across the South West.
In the tiny village of Ashleworth, husband and wife duo Kevin and Maddie Conlon opened Gloucestershire’s first wild sauna and cold plunge alsmost two years ago in October 2024.
The Sauna at the Cottage sits in the meadow behind their house and offers an idyllic spot to decompress. Owner Maddie said: “We get a lot of feedback where people afterwards feel like they’ve just been able to stop.
“Our little thing that we say is ‘pause, slow down, breathe’, because everything is just so busy right now and people are not finding time to just have a little moment to themselves.”
The Sauna at the Cottage in Ashleworth, Gloucestershire(Image: Verity Lacey)
The British Sauna Society highlights the physical benefits of regular sauna use and cold-water therapy, including improvements to heart and brain health.
It also points to their growing role in social prescribing, helping those experiencing poor mental health or loneliness.
Maddie and Kevin Conlon don’t just see the sauna as a place to switch off and disconnect from the outside world, but also as a place to connect with one another.
They host a range of group experiences designed to foster the community which comes with sauna culture, offering everything from picnics to sound baths to outdoor yoga.
Maddie explained the experience taps into something more instinctive: “There are elements of it that, for me, are obviously just like sitting around a fire.
The Sauna at the Cottage in Ashleworth, Gloucestershire(Image: Verity Lacey)
“We’ve been doing that for thousands of years, but as a species, we don’t do that anymore; we sit in front of the telly, we sit in front of Netflix.”
And it’s not just the Sauna at the Cottage that’s picking up steam in the South-West’s sauna boom.
Last month saw the publication of the Sauna Guide to South West England which highlights over 130 outdoor saunas, ranging from urban settings to seaside escapes.
Its writer, Kerry O’Neill, said: “While compiling our previous book, The Coastal Café Guide, we spotted a surprising number of outdoor saunas popping up.
“The research that followed revealed two things: that the wild sauna scene is exploding across the South West and the UK more broadly, and that there wasn’t a single guide bringing them all together. That’s where this book comes in.”