Dublin swimming haven the Forty Foot provided the unlikely – and blustery – backdrop for a mobile sauna in the days before Christmas.
Over the past 250 years, the much loved bathing spot, at a promontory in Sandycove beside the James Joyce Tower, has witnessed many a sight, most famously, perhaps, Buck Mulligan’s dip there in Ulysses.
But one suspects that even Joyce couldn’t have imagined a wooden 10-person sauna on wheels perched there, overlooking the sea.
It was as if an alien spaceship had landed, with hardy swimmers and walkers stopping to gawp as they rounded the concrete wind shelters of the Forty Foot, on a rocky outcrop reaching into Dublin Bay. The spot has become temporary home to the The Hot Box Sauna company, which has been awarded a licence by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
The council became the first of Dublin’s local authorities to trial the use of mobile saunas as part of a pilot scheme over two months in December and January. Others are situated at Killiney beach and Dún Laoghaire Baths.
Helen Smirnova, a civil engineer with the council’s Infrastructure and Climate Change division, said that for the previous year the council had been receiving requests for saunas to be installed.
“We were asked if we would be interested in placing saunas in public grounds. There are a lot of saunas in private grounds but only one or two other local authorities around the country allow this scheme,” she said.
[ Tailbacks from Forty Foot stretch for miles as Christmas swimmers descendOpens in new window ]
Ms Smirnova said the council decided to begin the trial after it was approached by people involved in the business and by members of the public.
“We can’t just allow someone to set up and we couldn’t prioritise one particular vendor over another,” she said. “We had to make it a fair competition for those applying for the licence. It’s a good opportunity to do a trial and what we viewed as the best service providers were given a licence.”
Up to 15 applications were made to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council; five saunas are now based in the three locations and have the option to open from 7am to 7pm three days weekly. One of the key stipulations for operators is that they must provide their own insurance.
Whether or not the saunas become permanent features hasn’t yet been decided. The council will consider factors such as what the atmosphere is like around the pop-ups, cleanliness, traffic and safety.
Ms Smirnova said the council “wanted to find out if the locals were okay with the set up”. She said there had not been “a major amount of complaints as of yet” but some concerns had been raised.
The council will compile a report and make a decision within months on whether or not to continue the scheme, she added; the saunas would be run by private entities, with tenders for each location advertised.
Meanwhile, Waterford City and County Council has licensed two outdoor saunas, or hot pods, which are operating at Kilmurrin Cove and Clonea Strand. A spokesperson said the “general reaction has been very positive” and that the local authority intends to extend the offering.
Back at the Forty Foot, friends Kate Blaney, Jane Young and Caroline Somers, from Sandycove, Booterstown and Blackrock respectively, were full of praise for the concept of a local authority licensing saunas.
Ms Somers said she loved it. “It’s great for this time of year to encourage people to use saunas while getting in and out of the sea,” she said. “The council should definitely try to keep it operating.”
Ms Young was introduced to the pop-up by a friend. “They are a great addition,” she said.
Ian McColl, from Dún Laoghaire, who happened upon the sauna while out walking his dog, said that if he had known about it before he “would have definitely used it”.
“It’s a hilariously wonderful idea,” he said.
Micheál Beirne (23) who works for The Hot Box Sauna company, which operates in five locations around Ireland, said the business takes all concerns from members of the public on board, including over whether a person’s body can cope with going from hot to cold temperatures so quickly.
“In Finland and, indeed, other Scandinavian countries, the use of saunas outdoors is part of their culture. When using a sauna people should go at their own pace,” he said.
The majority of people “love it”, Mr Beirne said of the concept. “I get great satisfaction from this job. I love hearing about how people found out about saunas,” he said.
“Saunas are a good place for people to socialise. It gets them outdoors and in this day and age, with our fast pace of life and social media, individuals are feeling the burden of loneliness. In Finland 80 per cent of people who use such saunas are aged over 60.”
Forty-five minute slots can be booked for €15; all users must be aged over 18.
The trial ends on Friday, January 31st.
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