Our Journey

Our  story begins in November 2021 when we purchased the materials for what would become the very first of The Barrel Saunas. 

Both of us have a long history of sauna use and attending traditional sweat lodge ceremonies, so sweating as a regular practice has been a big part of our lives for a long time. Rob was looking to change career from set construction in film and TV, to something with a little more flexibility to allow for more family time. We were approached by a friend who was hoping to rent out a sauna, but their plans changed so we did it ourselves!

Working late into the night every evening after the day job finished, we built the first 8-seater sauna on a trailer while we looked for a home to place it. We were planning to station it on either a beach, lake or riverside but in the end we were very pleased to find ourselves down a small little lane on Clanbrassil Street in Dublin 8. Here, in December of 2021, we began to develop a small community of sauna-goers, enough to call for a second sauna being added by February 2022.

That spring, we had our first outing for the Happenings Festival in Dublin City and soon realised our community was spreading wider and wider. By that November, we had secured a space in our local town of Greystones and began to build a sauna there. We opened our new 10-seater sauna in the Boatyard in Greystones just in time for Christmas 2022.

Following the closure of our Clanbrassil Street location around the same time, we had a quick turnaround in launching our new space at Phase on Garville Lane Upper in Rathgar. Opening in early February 2023, we were amazed by the increase in demand for our sauna seats, partially arising from the sudden sauna-craze gripping Ireland. By November 2023 we were opening our third sauna in Rathgar, increasing our capacity there and building an additional 10-seater sauna in our Greystones location. 

Over the course of the last few years, it’s been a pleasure to witness our community evolve. Our goal has always been to improve our facilities bit by bit and ensure everyone feels welcome at The Barrel Sauna, and for that reason we have continuously incorporated more diverse sessions into our scheduling. We offer Slow Burn sessions for those seeking a more intense and deeper experience at the sauna. Anyone in need of a more tranquil reset after a long day's work can make use of our Silent Sauna Sessions, which are scheduled every evening from 6:15pm. We’re also delighted to provide daily Ladies Sessions from 6:15pm, allowing women a private space to unwind and relax. 

From this, our community of women has increasingly expanded over the last few months, prompting a series of bespoke events at both locations. We had a Women’s Day Session in Rathgar in celebration of International Women’s Day and our most recent Sana na mBan event in Greystones was organised by Ali Wing Woman, in association with professional life coach and certified Wim Hof Method Instructor Mary Fahey, lessons in botanics with Laura Holly from Sugarloaf Botanics and delicious vegan treats from Greystones Momma Yvonne. The female spirit and presence can also be felt through our murals in Rathgar, which were done by artist KinMx. KinMx is a founding member of the all-female street art group the Minaw Collective and is currently on an ambitious journey to construct a Ik Muluk, a sustainable art and research centre in the heart of the Tulum jungle in Mexico which we hope to continue to support. 

If you’ve been following our journey on social media you’ll know that we recently announced news that our Rathgar location is unfortunately coming to a close soon. Although we’re very sad to be leaving the space which helped us reach new heights, we’re very excited to reveal our new Dublin 6 location later this summer! 

We can’t wait to welcome you all to our new location in Tallaght on the 11th of July. We’ll be opening our new setup at Holohan Martial Arts and look forward to being part of the amazing community Paddy Holohan has built here. 

We’re also delighted to announce that we’ll be opening in Dundrum this autumn. We’re really excited about this set up nestled behind Uncle Tom’s Cabin on Dundrum Road. It’s going to be our best yet!

More locations to be announced in the coming months too :)

We’d like to thank all of our colleagues and collaborators for joining us on our amazing journey. BrickBear Clothing, with whom we launched the first of our exciting new merch collection – our embroidered sauna hats – which have been flying off shelves and onto heads in both Greystones and Rathgar. This is only the beginning of our collaboration with Brickbear so watch this space for future drops! 

We’d also like to thank Be Kind for helping to provide our community with luxury hand-rolled incense to enhance the meditative experience, Good 4 U in supplying the much needed energy-boosting snacks, and All About Kombucha for quenching the thirst of our sauna-goers after their sessions. We couldn’t maintain the quality heat of our fires without the supply of wood from Andy Cox of Local Eco Firewood. Working closely with Andy has allowed us to perfect the quality of the fuel that we use which ultimately leads to a better sauna experience for our guests. All of the wood is sourced in Leinster, processed and dried north Wicklow and delivered in bulk to all of our locations. This approach significantly reduces our carbon footprint and enables us to support another local small business.

We’ve been so lucky over the past two years to be set up so close to our friend Alana from AlaNina Therapies who provides wonderful massage therapy to our community and staff. Alana will be reopening her studio in the Ranelagh/Ballsbridge area, on Waterloo Road as of July 2024. You can make inquiries or bookings via WhatsApp on +353 851 968779.

Whether it is part of a weekly practice or when the mood strikes, we're delighted to provide a space to release, recover and reconnect. Relaxing heat, refreshing cold and calm surroundings are really important to us - the more we improve on them the more our community grows. We encourage everyone to sauna, it really can bring about positive change in our lives. Give it a chance and you'll see why it's so popular amongst all types of people, it really helps to unwind the mind.  

We can’t wait to welcome you all to our new setups. 

See you there!