Faced with an outbreak of ash dieback in a forest – part of the family beef farm – which was to have formed a big part of his dad John’s retirement fund, 25 year-old Harry Smyth came up with the idea of using the wood surplus as fuel for a sauna on the family land.
The Hidden Sauna development which opened three weeks ago, has a wood-fired sauna as its centrepiece, set against the backdrop of scenic east Cork.
“We farm over 100ac here at Bridgefield near Castlemartyr. We have a pedigree Aberdeen Angus herd.
“I have some of my own and we also show them,” said Harry who studied food innovation in Technological University Dublin (TUD) and who always wanted to start his own business.
“It’s hard to really know when the ash dieback disease got to our 20ac forest but it’s been there for a number of years. I would say it was 2018 when we noticed it on the trees,” he added.
“The ash dieback disease is noticeable when the trees begin to lose their leaves and the colour begins to darken on the bark of the tree and eventually it kills the tree as it rots from the inside out.
“Dad set the trees back in 2006, making the trees 18 years old now. The field was one of the boggier fields and so my dad thought of it as a good use that him and our family could benefit from as it is a valuable wood for building and the likes of hurley ash when it reaches a certain age,” he said.
Harry got the idea for a sauna facility when he was down looking at the trees in the forest in a patch he had trimmed as a child:
“I used to go down in the summers when I was 9,10,11 and 12 and trim the side branches so that the trees grew better and did not grow outward and it stops them from staying shorter.”
“My dad thought it was a great idea and he has always been very supportive of me,” said Harry.
“A lot of time was spent putting down on paper what the sauna would look like in the field. I contacted sauna builders and spoke to some sauna owners and got their feedback on how their businesses were going.
“After I knew the costs and what was involved, the next step was to get good tradespeople that would do the job how I wanted it done. Mark Foley, the carpenter, who built the structure for me is phenomenal at what he does. He built a lot of what you see around the site,” Harry said.
“The cost of building I managed to cut down a lot as I I knew I was capable of doing it myself, like all the gardening you see was done by myself. The paths I all dug by hand, painting was done by myself.
“The amount of holes me and my dad dug for everything around the site was tough going. It felt like we dug out more soil than the Eurotunnel, to be honest,” Harry laughed.
“At present, we have an 85m2 woodland studio, a clean and tiled changing area with veranda for privacy which many saunas do not have; customer toilets a four minute walk from the site; a 12-person wood fired sauna; a four-person cold plunge pool; an outdoor shower; and a coffee caravan with all the bells and whistles and we’re serving Bell Lane Coffee.
“I’d like to thank Gail there for staying patient and teaching me how to be a barista for the day, a far cry from dosing cattle and driving machinery but I’m adapting,” he quipped.
“The cost in order to set up what I had envisioned has definitely involved a lot more than the standard sea sauna experience but doing the groundwork now means I can expand in the future for what I have planned.”
Harry added that the Irish weather “does affect us and unfortunately going into the winter the constant rain like last winter might make things difficult for me to deal with at all parts of my business. I can’t cut timber in the rain.
“If there is heavy rainfall, it pools in the carpark and makes some areas in the field muddy, which is why I’m laying paths everywhere. People generally don’t like leaving their houses in the rain so it affects business too,” he said.
His plans for the future involve “expanding into a proper outdoor spa wellness retreat where people can choose to leave their phones in the lockers and experience an outdoor space in a natural native Irish forest”.
“The Japanese have an expression ‘Shinrin-yoku’ which translates to forest bathing. It invites you to take a break from your busy life and connect with nature.
“So I want people to be able to do that with the premium feel of having our own hot tub/cold plunge/sauna if they so wish. It’s also the new thing to be able to go and do with friends and it means a good alternative to going to the pub.
“I have plans to get all of the electricity that will be used 100% by solar panels and so no carbon footprint. As I take the dying timber from our forest I will be resetting other areas with native Irish trees so we have a circular economy,” he said.
“Across Europe, nations average around 35% of forest cover but in Ireland the figure is only 11%, one of the lowest in the continent.
“If we want to market ourselves and do our bit for the environment I believe farmers should be given higher grants for setting forest because it is just not good enough as it is.
‘”The ash dieback disease has affected many farmers’ forests in every county of Ireland and we are not receiving enough compensation for a disease that was imported.
“It wasn’t our fault, so why must we pay the price? At present the government is only offering approximately 2k/ha compensation,” he said.