Driftwood Sauna, Stonehaven — the Beach to Ourselves

We were staying in Aberdeen for a week while my fiance did a work course nearby. I was working from the hotel during the day, so I booked us a private sauna session at Driftwood in Stonehaven for one evening, something to look forward to once he was back.

He was running late, so I grabbed our sauna bag and packed it myself. It was only once we got there that I realised I’d left his swim shorts behind.

We’d booked privately, so at least it was just the two of us. Still, my fiance didn’t think he’d be able to get in at all. I told the owner what I’d done, half expecting an awkward conversation. He just laughed and told him his boxers would do fine.

A quiet, misty night

It was misty when we arrived, the kind of evening that felt like it was building up to thunder, darker than it should have been, still and strangely warm. I hadn’t checked the forecast. It turned out to just be the harr, a ‘sea mist’. It turned out to be the reason we had the place almost entirely to ourselves. Beyond a couple of dog walkers passing on the harbour front, there was nobody else around.

The setup

Driftwood Sauna Stonehaven is a converted horsebox, clad outside in driftwood the owner had collected from the beach himself. The whole thing has a real castaway feel, everything around it salvaged and put to use. Old fishing nets, buoys, a pirate flag outside for a bit of fun. The changing area and seating spot nearby are done out the same way.

There’s even a sign at the seating area letting you know the local chip shops will deliver straight there. It struck me as funny. You don’t expect to be able to order food to a sauna on a harbour.

The sauna inside has the same quirky, shabby chic feel, a bowl of essential oils hanging over the stove, the bucket and ladle sitting next to it.

The whisky barrel

The cold plunge is a whisky barrel right outside the sauna door, concrete steps leading up to it and more steps down inside so you can sit facing the sea. It’s deep enough that only your head pokes out the top, and it was the first time either of us had tried one. We took turns with the barrel, one of us in the sauna while the other used it, then swapping round.

Between rounds, we went into the sea itself too. My fiance went in wearing his boxers, wading in with nobody around but us and the owner nearby.

A chat with the owner

We got chatting to the owner as we were leaving. He mentioned his sauna is the second oldest wood-fired sauna in Scotland. The spot itself used to belong to a creel fisherman, an older man who’d fished lobster and crab from the harbour for years. When he retired, nobody was doing anything with the space, so the owner decided to start a paddleboarding and water sports business there, with the sauna as part of it.

He also said something that stuck with me. Indoor saunas were a big thing in people’s houses in the 70s, and then the fad passed. He wondered out loud whether the current wave of outdoor saunas would go the same way. I know how much I love going to them, so I hope this isn’t just a passing thing.

Not always this quiet

We went back a few days later for dinner, having spotted a restaurant on our first visit that we fancied trying, and it was a completely different scene. Locals and fishermen sitting out with a beer along the harbour, teenagers jumping off the pier, a few jet skis buzzing about. It’s clearly a proper social hub for the harbour when the weather’s good.

The sunny night was lovely too, but the misty one worked out better for us in the end, having the beach and the sea entirely to ourselves, forgotten shorts and all.