If you are heading to the UK Aufguss Championships 2026, this guide brings together saunas across Northern Ireland, along with nearby points of interest around each one.

In this lived experience, Stephanie shares her journey through postnatal depression and the role sauna has played in her recovery.

In this lived experience, Sian shares her journey through pregnancy loss, postnatal depression and the role sauna has played in her recovery.

At this stage, we know. We know frequent use of sauna and contrast bathing therapy is incredibly good for health, wellness and longevity. We have read the studies, we know them well. In sauna circles, and indeed on the UK sauna scene, Laukkanen is a household name; or a saunahold name, that’s for sure.

A lived experience by Harry Beardsley . In this lived experience, Harry reflects on addiction, recovery, and the role sauna and cold water have played in rebuilding his life.

New research has been published that finds that shared sauna rituals significantly boost wellbeing by enhancing social connectedness, belonging, and emotional synchrony.
Building on the social cure model, which identifies how membership to social groups fosters mental and physical wellbeing, the study suggests sauna is not just an individual wellness practice, but offers a social hub that fosters communal belonging and inclusion. 

There is a moment that often arrives unbidden in the sauna. It might be during the third round, once the body has softened, when conversation has quietened and the visceral stimulation of bathing is gently working within. Something shifts. Defences drop. Consciousness widens. We become aware of how good it feels to sit together, relaxed, open, human. And then the thought arises: we’ve always done this.

One Thursday morning, after dropping my daughter at nursery, I realised how depleted I already felt. The day had barely begun, yet my shoulders were tight and my mind crowded. Maybe it was the 3am toilet-training wake-up. Maybe it was the quiet marathon of getting a toddler out of the house before 9am, with all the tiny negotiations that requires.

Whatever the cause, I felt a deep sense of relief knowing that in a few hours I would be at Mothers Recharge, a weekly, women-only (should we say mums-only to avoid problems?) community sauna session I founded in 2025 with London’s Community Sauna Baths, offering uninterrupted time to recover.