The sauna and plunge pool experience is only open to guests staying in the Shepherd's Huts or the Deerpark Inn, and it has to be added to the booking rather than bought on its own. Add it and you get an hour per day, per person, in the sauna and the cold plunge. Robes, slippers and towels are provided, so you turn up in swimwear and nothing else.

The huts sit in woodland on the Virginia Park Lodge estate, close enough to the sauna that you walk over in your robe. Each hut comes with a breakfast hamper delivered to the door. Dinner is available at the Deerpark Inn. The estate runs to 100 acres, with woodland walks and the Deerpark Forest — a historic woodland — on the doorstep. Golf is also on offer.

The draw here is the alternation of heat and cold, done outdoors, with countryside around you rather than tiles. Guests use it to start the day or to close it, and couples can take a session together. It is a simple thing done properly: a hot sauna, a cold plunge, a robe, and trees.

This is not a taught wellness programme. Nobody is running breathwork classes or guiding you through a protocol. You get the facilities and the hour, and you use them how you like. If you want a structured retreat with scheduled sessions, this isn't that — it's a comfortable hut, a sauna in the woods, and a cold pool.

Virginia Park Lodge is in County Cavan, in the Irish midlands, surrounded by countryside rather than town. The combination of the hut, the woodland setting and the sauna makes it a workable short break from Dublin or Belfast, and a quiet one for an anniversary or a midweek escape.

What's included

- Shepherd's Hut accommodation - Breakfast hamper delivered to your hut - One hour per day, per person of sauna and plunge pool access (when the experience is added) - Robe, slippers and towels for the sauna - Access to estate woodland walks and the Deerpark Forest

What's not included

- Sauna and cold plunge experience (€35 per person, added to the booking) - Dinner at the Deerpark Inn - Golf - Travel to and from County Cavan - Swimwear and personal items

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