Haar Sauna Ltd: we’re an outdoor sauna company, built by a passionate husband-and-wife duo. Our outdoor sauna experience invites you to celebrate the evolution of sauna culture in Scotland. Locations: St Ninian's Beach in Shetland and Brae, Shetland
Our Story
We are Callum and Hannah Mary, and we love to sauna.
One cold, crisp, silver morning in January 2020, we were sat in Oslo’s Badstuforening – a social enterprise sauna in the mouth of the Norwegian fjord. It was two months before the world was turned upside down with covid. We had no idea what was coming our way. No one did.
Lockdowns went from weeks, to months, to years and we kept thinking back to the peace of the Oslo sauna. We were inspired by our Norwegian neighbours across the North Sea, and the thought of bringing authentic sauna culture home to Scotland wouldn’t leave our minds.
We wanted to connect the great Scottish wilderness to the possibility of sauna – so we knew that our sauna had to be mobile. We bought an old “I for Williams” horse box and started to work on it together as our lockdown project. Month by month, we built, sawed, hammered our way into DIY sauna heaven. We loved it. It was a way to reconnect, a way to give us purpose and a way to learn a new skill.
After a few months, Haar Sauna was ready. We had designed and created a beautiful Scandi sauna ready to tour across Scotland. We were also Scotland’s first mobile sauna – something we are really proud of.
Across in Scandinavia, the sauna is a significant part of culture and life. Our North Sea neighbours have long enjoyed the benefits of a sauna session combined with cold water therapy. For Norwegians, the sauna is the place to relax with friends and family, to unwind, to socialise and sometimes, even do business.
Since building it, Haar Sauna has been on an incredible journey. From the golden sands of Aberdeen beach, to the purple headed mountains of the Cairngorms to the calm banks of the River Tay. Each location unique, each location a dream.
Haar Sauna is currently located in St Ninian's Beach, Shetland Islands.
We are so excited to share that we are expanding, and our second location for our eight seater sauna will be in Brae, Shetland in January and February 2025.
In May 2024, we attend the British Sauna Society first every Sauna Summit, Haar Sauna won a award for being the UK's Best Nature Sauna 2024, this prize was given to the sauna that has best succeeded in capturing an experience of being close to or surrounded by the natural world.
Sauna at 60 degrees north, it doesn’t get much better than that
Follow our journey: @haar.sauna
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