The sauna
Purpose-built and wood-lined, with benches at more than one height so you can sit up in the heat or drop below it. It runs at 90° and is shared with up to 10 people.
Our story
A community sauna on the Coast Road in Malahide, built on a tradition older than the Nordic one.
Ireland’s own sweat tradition
Long before Nordic saunas arrived, Ireland had its own: the teach allais, the “house of sweat.” There are over 300 documented across the island — most in the northwest, more than a third in Co. Leitrim alone. They were small dry-stone domes: a turf fire was lit inside, the ashes raked out, and people crawled in through a low door to sweat, before plunging into a cold stream nearby. Hot, then cold, then rest.
The first written account came in 1796, when a French traveller, the Chevalier de Latocnaye, noted that “wherever there are four or five cabins near each other, there is sure to be a sweating-house.”
There isn’t a single sweathouse recorded in Co. Dublin — the closest are across the water on the Cooley Peninsula. Consider this Malahide’s.
A note from Sean
No spa frills, no membership hard sell — just a well-built sauna and a cold plunge by the sea, open early and late, so you can let yourself in and make yourself at home.
An Chloch · The Stone
Our name is carved, not written
The mark on our door is Ogham, Ireland’s first alphabet, cut along the edges of standing stones fifteen centuries ago. It reads from the ground up, the way heat rises.
Benefits of using our sauna
Relaxation
Heat loosens you physically, and the mind usually follows. Most people leave calmer than they arrived, and plenty find they sleep better that night.
Circulation
Heat raises your heart rate and widens your blood vessels, so more blood moves towards the surface of the skin. Your body works to hold its temperature steady, and circulation picks up while it does.
Aches and stiffness
That same increase in blood flow helps ease tight joints and sore muscles. It is why a session after training, or at the end of a long week, tends to leave you looser rather than drained.
- Every session
- 60 min
- People per session
- 10 max
- In the sauna
- 90°
- In the ice baths
- 4° & 8°
- Cold baths on site
- 2
- First slot, weekdays
- 5.45am
- Open every week
- 7 days
The sauna, the ice bath, the setting
The ice bath
There are two of them, one held at 4° and one at 8°. Go in slowly and breathe as you do; the first breath calms the nervous system. The baths are custom made, with circulating fresh water that is changed every 10 uses.
Where we are
Gannon Park on the Coast Road, between Malahide village and Portmarnock. Low Rock is a short walk, Malahide DART is another, and Ireland’s Eye and Lambay sit out on the horizon.
Come and try it
Sessions run 60 minutes and are shared with up to 10 people. Book online, or read what to expect before your first visit.
