Sweathouse

by Rosanna Cooney

Sweathouse threads together the 3,000-year-old tradition of sauna in Ireland and reveals for the first time how this ‘new craze’ is a forgotten Irish legacy, smouldering just below the surface, waiting for its moment to catch fire again. Combining in-depth research with personal experience, Cooney crawls inside enigmatic stone sweathouses in search of their long-held secrets, and traces Ireland’s extraordinary role in the spread of sweat-bathing across the world. She travels around Europe to wild and magical saunas, bringing home their deep expertise on how to get the best physical, mental and spiritual benefits from each sweat session.

287 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2025

Reviews

[Cathal McGuinness · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant! Simultaneously highly informative and tenderly reflective, a really interesting history of communal sweating in this country and further afield, also chocked full of great recommendations here and abroad for sauna lovers. Couldn't recommend enough as an easy, interesting read

[Erin Barbery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really informative about the history of sweat houses in Europe. I liked the anecdotal evidence and memoir-like bits to it as well. I wish there had been more about Irish sweat house culture and ritual, but it might just be that there isn’t enough evidence (although there’s a really informative sauna session at Tigh’N Alluis that talks about this)