When my middle O’Malley daughter Bébhinn’s beloved dog Samhradh died in 2021, our pirate princess brought her all the way from south Kerry where she lives to her island home-place in Co Mayo to bury her.
Like Bébhinn, Samhradh was a bit of a hippy chick herself, wandering the beaches of the Wild Atlantic Way while her human pal surfed or swam, sunbathed in sand dunes, planned her next adventure up mountains or across continents.
Bébhinn buried Samhradh in the shadow of Glen Hill on Clare Island giving her canine spirit a great view of the harbour and Clew Bay down below, as well as holy mountain Croagh Patrick etching the mainland sky.
Now three years after her death the spirit of Bébhinn’s much-loved dog is celebrated at Samhradh’s Sauna, a well-established fixture on Co Kerry’s Cromane beach where there is a panoramic view framed by the Dingle and Iveragh peninsulas, the Slieve Mish mountains and the MacGillicuddy Reeks.
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By all accounts the rise of the mobile sauna is a positive result of the pandemic, the surge in sea-swimming and a new focus on our health and outdoor lifestyles.
Being of a certain age, it was far from the health benefits of saunas I was raised. The pinnacle of our childhood ablutions was two or three of us splashing around in the bath on a Saturday night.
The notion of hotel spas for pampering weekends with steam-rooms and saunas, salt grottos and hydro-therapy pools was about as alien as a world without catechisms and dinner in the middle of the day.
Apparently, however, we have an ancient history of stone-built sweat-houses so I couldn’t use the cultural card when my daughter invited me to have a sauna during a recent visit to the Kingdom.
Frankly, agreeing to sit semi-naked in an enclosed space at 80 degrees Celsius with a group of people I didn’t know was bringing me out of my increasingly rigid comfort zone.
The thought of then walking a few times across a billowing beach as part of the process to submerge myself in freezing cold water – it was April and the ocean was at most 10 degrees – didn’t exactly excite me.
But when Bébhinn told me that one of her regular clients was an octogenarian, I had to throw away the age card.
Indeed, she told me also that her clients are of all ages and walks-of-life, from farmers to engineers, cleaners to doctors, both locals and visitors.
Salving my claustrophobic tendencies, she explained that her Finnish-style wood-fired sauna, situated out there in the elements, ensures a sense of breathability, with the big window offering the benefits of both a therapeutic landscape and seascape.
She cites the research of a keynote speaker at the inaugural Sauna Summit in the UK during May where Dr Susanna Søberg talked about the scientific merits of cold water immersion and sauna.
“Her research has identified that the optimal health benefits for heat and cold exposure each week is 11 minutes of cold and 57 minutes of heat,” Bébhinn said.
Adding that “the benefits of regular saunas with immersion in cold water are huge and are a really affordable self-care ritual which is a preventative healthcare measure rather than a reactive bid for a healthcare solution.”
I can certainly now attest that despite my initial reluctance, I experienced a real feeling of wellbeing after my sauna.
Not to sound evangelical, I felt cleansed both internally and externally!
I found myself quickly relaxing in the communal space as myself and my daughter Saoirse joined the hour-long session with four other participants.
Of course we ended up chatting and, wouldn’t you know, it turned out we tripped across circuitous connections and were like old friends – in that inimitable Irish way – by the end of the session.
Meanwhile, Bébhinn was outside preparing for her next group of clients.
Her new puppy, Nora – adjusting to life on the beach – was running around in circles chasing her tail beside a sandwich board with the Samhradh’s Sauna logo.
It is a painting of Bébhinn on a surf board with her dearly departed dog and the outline of Clare Island in the background.