Heat And Harmony

Rachel McConachie steps out of the ordinary into elemental wellbeing at Taymouth Marina

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I LOVE a spa day. Give me a sauna and a plunge pool and I’m content. But while I enjoy hotel spas, what really stirs my soul are outdoor saunas: the ones with woodsmoke, wild views and cold water on the doorstep.

Scotland's ancestors, it turns out, weren’t strangers to communal sweat lodges. Archaeological discoveries in Orkney show that steam huts were once part of life here.

Now, scattered across beaches, lochsides, estates and forests, a new wave of wild saunas is bringing this tradition back to life, and nowhere is that revival more alive than at Taymouth Marina on the shores of Loch Tay.

Owners Eric and Naomi Strickland have created a haven for wild heat-and-cold rituals that put the natural world at the centre of the experience. Their ethos is to keep things outdoors, keep them playful and never overbuild. They are determined that the loch and its restorative powers remain the star attraction.