The sauna has had a glow-up. What used to be a beige cabinet in the corner of a leisure centre is now wood-fired, off-grid, set in proper wilderness or built with real design ambition. The places below are the ones taking it furthest – saunas designed as the reason to stay, not the bonus you forgot to use. A sauna surrounded by ancient Scottish oak, one reached only by boat, one tucked 300m deep into Irish meadow, one beside a wild swimming lake on a Somerset vineyard. These are the Kip stays where the sauna does the talking.
Thornfalcon – Near Taunton, Somerset
Sophie left the V&A; Panu left 25 years in the London drinks industry. Together they bought a 250-year-old Somerset farm and started from scratch – planting vines and cider apple orchards, restoring the buildings, building a winery and creating three beautifully considered retreats. The Wild Spa is entirely off-grid: morning lake swims followed by a wood-fired sauna, yoga sessions, sound baths and massages. There’s a Lambing Shed with a wood-fired bath under the apple trees and a Vine Hut with an alfresco copper tub facing the vines. From £170/night.
Great Park Farm Cabins – Catsfield, East Sussex
2 childhood friends, now architects, have been quietly building something extraordinary on a family farm in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – one cabin at a time. The shared sauna is a real showpiece: an award-winning, off-grid wood-fired structure in a clearing of the surrounding woodland, painted deep oxblood red against the green. Smoke rises from the chimney, you book your hour, you light it yourself. Each cabin has its own character – Bather’s is devoted entirely to the art of bathing, with a hidden roof terrace housing a hot tub, cold plunge and soaking bath under a giant oak; Yogi’s is built around a yoga studio and a spring-fed swimming lake. A farm shop and cafe sits a short walk up the track. From £150/night.
Inverlonan – near Oban, Scotland
You can only reach these three architect-designed cabins by boat or buggy – they sit on the private shores of Loch Nell, 15 minutes from Oban but completely tourist-free. Each has a bespoke ash kitchen, a mezzanine bed and walls in rich clay. The wood-fired sauna sits right on the loch, best taken straight after a wild swim while white-tailed sea eagles circle overhead. Daily breakfast delivered to your door. From £200/night.
The Forager’s Cabin – Powys, Wales
A bespoke eco cabin hidden in 10 acres of private Welsh woodland, built by a couple who found the valley by chance and moved here within months. There’s a G&T deck at the end of the woods, a woodburner inside and a hot tub on a private terrace in the trees. The woodland sauna sits deeper in, with a soundtrack of birdsong by day and owls by dusk – step out into woodsmoke and dark starry skies. Aromatherapy massages and facials can be arranged for extra indulgence. From £185/night.
Llangollen Shacks – Llangollen, N Wales
Solar-powered off-grid shacks built by two friends on a mountainside in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with hand-crafted oak furniture, old-school cassette players and beds facing out to valley views. The sauna is an entirely off-grid structure tucked into a corner of woodland — no treatments, no schedule, no spa. Book it as an add-on and earn it with a walk first. From £112/night.
Lanrick Estate – Perthshire, Scotland
An architect-owner who grew up playing in these woods built a treehouse 20 feet off the ground in his family’s ancient oak woodland on the banks of the River Teith, and fitted it out like a boutique hotel – luxe toiletries, copper alfresco bath, underfloor heating. The woodland sauna is buried under a mound of earth, complete with a plunge pool; there’s also a Swedish massage available on-site if you want to go all in. From £210/night.
Tigín – Co. Wicklow, Ireland.
A 300-metre walk through long grass from the car park, past orchard trees and meadow, into 73 private acres of woodland and bogland – and then there it is, invisible from the road. The wood-fired sauna has a panoramic window onto the hills; the copper bath sits out under open sky for soaks after dark. There’s a firepit for the evening, an Instax camera, a stack of cassettes and a box you can lock your phone in. Tigín was originally the owners’ personal retreat – a place they’d come back to from Paris to properly stop – and it’s still built around that idea. From £200/night.
