Cornwall in winter: saunas, sea air and Chapel House
In the last few years wood-fired saunas have opened on beaches and harbour walls from Bude to Newlyn, along with cold plunges, sea swimming groups and hotel spa gardens that stay open through the wettest months. You sweat for ten minutes, walk into the sea, go back in to warm up and do it all again, then find a fire and something to eat. I now look forward to dark January mornings, which I never thought I would say.
The saunas in and around Penzance
Start in St Ives, at Kiln's sauna pavilion above Porthmeor Beach, just along from the Tate. Two ten-person wood-fired saunas sit side by side with a long window onto the Atlantic, joined by sheltered walkways to cold plunge pools and showers, with a grassy amphitheatre for yoga in front. A 45-minute social session is £12, which is less than a cocktail in most of St Ives, and you can run straight down the steps into the surf between rounds if you are brave. Two designers, Kathryn Tyler and Angus Thatcher, started Kiln in Falmouth in 2024, and it was named Best Community Sauna at that year's British Sauna Society awards. Its original mobile sauna is still on Gyllyngvase Beach, with a second that moves between Flushing, Mylor and the Ferry Boat Inn at Helford Passage.
Also in St Ives, up the hill at Ayr, is Tan and Dowr, Cornish for heat and water, a wood-fired mobile sauna with a cold plunge and a view right across St Ives Bay. It's great value at £9 for half an hour or £16 for an hour, and the evening sessions, from half past five on weekdays, are lovely in winter when the town lights come on below you.
Closer to home for me is Rising Embers on Newlyn Green, a small Finnish-style sauna heated by hot coals that you can sprinkle with essential oils, looking straight across Mount's Bay. Sessions run on Friday and Saturday mornings, and the sea is a few strides away.
Twenty minutes further west, almost as far as you can go in England, Bos Sauna sits on Cove Hill above Sennen Cove, a small wood-fired cabin looking straight out at the Atlantic. Its hours move with the tides and the seasons, and the week's sessions go up on its Instagram, so you time your sauna to the water and finish with a dip at Sennen, one of the finest beaches in Cornwall.
Elsewhere, Escape to the Sauna has wood-fired saunas at Carlyon Bay near St Austell, the boatyard at Maenporth and the riverside slipway at Hayle. On the north coast, Olla Hiki sets up at Fistral and Newquay harbour, with birch and eucalyptus whisking if you want it, and Saunas by the Sea runs from Baby Bay at Polzeath and Harlyn Bay near Padstow. If you would rather stay under a hotel roof, the cliff-top spa garden at Bedruthan, above Mawgan Porth, has a cedar sauna facing the waves, outdoor hot tubs, and a cold-bucket drench.
The newest arrival is at Carbis Bay, where the estate has opened POD St Ives, five smart glamping pods with walled gardens and, in the Spa and Family pods, private hot tubs. The Spa Pod, which sleeps four from £350 a night, has a woodstove in its garden, and guests have access to the new Nest Spa Garden, with a sauna cabin, ice bath and treatment room, as well as the C Bay Spa's heated outdoor pool. Coach Sarah Walsh leads sea swims off the estate's Blue Flag beach for £15.
Book ahead, even in winter. Most of these run on small numbers, take bookings through their own websites or Instagram, and move their pitches with the seasons, so check before you drive out.
Sea air and cold water
The sea here in winter sits at around ten degrees, cold enough to make you gasp, and after the first minute your skin starts to tingle and you stop noticing. In Penzance the year-round swimmers gather at Battery Rocks, beside the Jubilee Pool, most mornings whatever the weather, and they are a friendly lot if you ask where to get in. The Jubilee Pool itself, the art deco lido with its geothermally heated section, closes for the winter, so save that one for the spring.
Then there are the beaches, which in winter belong to walkers, dogs and the odd surfer. At Marazion you can cross the causeway to St Michael's Mount at low tide and have it almost to yourself. Sennen and Gwenver take the full weight of the Atlantic swell and are worth the drive just to stand and watch it come in, and Porthcurno, below the Minack, keeps its turquoise water even under a grey sky. An hour on any of them in a winter wind leaves you with salt on your lips, your hair in knots and a much quieter head.
Where to stay: Chapel House, Penzance
For a winter weekend, I would stay at Chapel House on Chapel Street, Sue's Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse a few minutes' walk from the harbour. Most of the six rooms and two duplex suites look out over Mount's Bay to the Lizard, there is homemade cake on the side all day and a glass of wine before dinner, and breakfast is served in the big kitchen downstairs.
The best part in winter is the small walled garden. A wood-fired sauna and a hot tub are out there, ready for you with an hour's notice, plus a Dryrobe to wrap up between the two. A wood burner keeps the garden warm while you sit out with a drink afterwards, steaming gently, listening to the gulls. I would happily spend every evening before dinner out there.
Then, on the lower ground floor, Rachel Lorente of Women's Balance works from a candlelit room with petrol-blue walls and a box of fifty-odd essential oils. Her two-hour Well Woman Rejuvenation (£120) starts with a salt-and-rose-petal foot bath and moves through a full-body aromatherapy massage, an organic facial with Cornish skincare from Inlight Beauty, and a long scalp massage, finishing with reflexology. She checks in on how you are feeling that day and changes the oils to suit. The couch is heated, and I drifted off more than once. Book the sauna for the afternoon, Rachel for the early evening, and don't plan to go anywhere afterwards.