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civic · Saturday 15 August 2026 · 3:00 PM 
Sweathouse: The New and Ancient Irish Sauna Tradition - Dundalk Library
At Dundalk Library · Roden Place, Dundalk, Co. Louth
At Dundalk Library · Roden Place, Dundalk, Co. Louth
Rosanna Cooney speaks at Dundalk Library on Saturday 15 August 2026 at 3pm on “Sweathouse: The New and Ancient Irish Sauna Tradition”. It is free, but the library has flagged booking as essential, so ring ahead rather than turning up on the day. The talk lands on the opening Saturday of National Heritage Week, which runs across Louth from 15 to 23 August.
The subject is one of the stranger corners of Irish vernacular heritage. Sweathouses were small drystone or sod structures, often no bigger than a dog kennel and dug into a bank near a stream, heated with a turf fire until the walls were hot, then cleared out so a person could crawl in, sweat, and plunge into cold water afterwards. Hundreds of them survive as ruins across the northern half of the country, with heavy concentrations in Leitrim, Cavan, Fermanagh and along the Louth and Armagh border, and they were still in use in some districts into the early twentieth century for rheumatism and general complaints. The second half of the title is the live part: Ireland has had a genuine sauna revival in the past few years, with mobile barrel saunas parked at beaches and lakes around the coast, including on the Louth shoreline. Cooney’s talk connects the two, which is a more interesting angle than either on its own.
Dundalk Library is on Roden Place in the centre of town, beside St Patrick’s Cathedral and a couple of minutes from the Market Square and Clanbrassil Street. Dundalk Clarke rail station on the Dublin to Belfast line is about a fifteen-minute walk, and the bus station on the Long Walk is closer. Drivers off the M1 should follow the town centre signs; the Marshes Shopping Centre multi-storey and the car parks off Park Street are the nearest, with limited metered spaces on Roden Place itself.
Heading to Dundalk Library in Dundalk? Louth has plenty more to see. Read the Dundalk area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.