How we research and check listings

What we list

Saunas and ice bath venues in Ireland and Northern Ireland that the public can book: sea and beach saunas, lakeside and riverside saunas, wood-fired and barrel saunas, mobile saunas, and recovery studios built around hot and cold. We leave out private homes, and hotel or spa facilities kept for residents only.

How each listing is researched

Every venue is checked against several sources before it goes on the site:

• The venue's own website and booking page. This is where prices, session lengths, opening hours, facilities and booking links come from.
• Its Google Maps listing. We use it for the exact location, the address and Eircode where one is given, and to read what visitors say.
• Its social channels, where a venue posts updates, seasonal hours or moves location.

If we can't confirm a detail, we leave it out rather than guess. Each listing shows the month it was last checked, and every price and set of hours is labelled with when we saw it, because small saunas change their timetables often.

How we summarise reviews

We read each venue's Google reviews and summarise the themes that come up again and again, such as the welcome, the heat, the views or the facilities, in our own words, with a rough sense of how many reviewers mention each one. We don't quote or name individual reviewers. Where we show a rating, it's the Google average and number of reviews at the time we checked, shown as text. We don't invent ratings or use our own scores.

What the labels mean

• Ice bath or cold plunge means a plunge tub or pool on site. A sauna where you cool off in the sea or a lake is listed as by the sea or by a lake, not as an ice bath, so the ice bath pages only show venues that really have one.
• Wood-fired means the venue says the sauna is heated by a wood stove.
• Map pins are placed using each venue's own Google Maps location. Mobile saunas are pinned at the beach or pier where they usually set up.
• Temporarily closed is shown when a venue says it's paused, for example for winter. Venues confirmed as permanently closed are removed.

Our guides

Guides are written in plain English for people in Ireland, using Irish prices, weather and rules. Health information is written cautiously: we describe what research has found as associations unless a trial shows more, we say clearly who should check with a GP first, and each guide lists its sources at the end. Every guide shows the date it was last updated. They're general information, not medical advice.

Tools we use

We use software tools, including AI, to help gather information and draft text. Everything is checked against the sources above and edited before it's published, and Ciaran Aherne is responsible for what appears on the site.

Independence

Listings are free. No venue can pay to be listed, to change what we say about it, or to change its position on a page. If we add advertising or paid features in future, they'll be clearly labelled and kept separate from what we write. Read more about who runs the site and how it's funded.

Corrections

If something on a listing is wrong or out of date, every venue page has a Report a problem link, or you can use the contact form or email hello@saunasinireland.ie. Venue owners can also update their listing. When we fix something, we update the listing and its last-checked date.

Who's responsible

The site is edited by Ciaran Aherne, who is responsible for what's published here.