UK wellness tourism will double in size between 2022 and 2030, so we’re definitely mid-steep curve and haven’t yet hit peak Sauna (although it feels like we’re on the path).

The industry has been very loyal to a minimilist, pan-asian style. It kind of got stuck in Madonna’s Buddhism phase - a style optimised by Kelly Hoppen, evolved by the likes of Spencer Fung for Daylesoford but never really escaped what I like to call ‘the gong breath look’. Of course Soho House did an amazing job at breaking the mould with their tongue and cheek Cowshed spas - which really do beautifully re-use farm buildings for this (the original at Babbington House is really lovely) - but what’s next?

There are so many vernaculars around the world which deliver beautiful bathing, health and spiritual cleanliness - monastic chic. We’re spoilt for choice in references. Whether it be the Hamman or the Japanese sentō - they’re all very culturally specific. And there is a real foundational importance of the experiences existing in a tradition, and in a place. Here lies the design challenge; in this era of wellness - to find a way to create experiences and spaces that feel like they are reaching back to a tradition in a place, on land.

So thought experiment. With an abundance of sauna’s - how do you create a sauna experience that is genuine a differentiator? The views, yes. The quality of the experience, so it exceeds or least matches expectations. But to create a lasting differentiator - I have a different proposition.

Root and Branch wellness in place;

Example 1. West Coast of Scotland Kelp bath sketches

Linking wellness and landscape, to local botanicals or to guided rituals based on history of the people from the place - smells, botanicals, plant, sounds and sequence could be a deeply powerful way of bringing people into commune with a special landscape. And, in a way, small independents are well placed to do this.

Kelp baths, salt water plunge, birch branches rooted in a Norse or viking elemental tradition, (Conde Nast traveller said that Viking Wellness was THE top travel trend for 2026.)

Concepts that include landscape storytelling as well as some imagined botanical therapies, and some real developed products are already being developed by local businesses, I really rate Ormaig who make a beautiful Kelp bath soak with foraged kelp harvested according to Bio dynamic rituals.

There is a so much growth set for the wellness and spiritual ‘industries’ that it is hard to keep pace with all of the new developments, therapies and approaches. But for people creating places to stay big or small, there is a bounty of rich material to create entry points for people to ‘feel a place’. What is nearby, or on the land or even in the myth or folklore of the place that could ground a new guided ritual, or even mindful walk for your guests and visitors?

The writers and catalogue keepers of this social and liteary connection to the land are bountious - too many names to mention but in my local Waterstones there is now a whole table given over to the genre. These bibles of the British Isles are just waiting to be mined, to turned into real experiences, guided walks and seasonal gatherings.

The mind of the child…..

I am a little obsessed with the imagery of Lilloey private Island concept hotel by Hotel group Lindenberg in Norway (see below). They have bought an Island (as hotel groups will) and restored the most characterful and illustration-like house and built little wellness destinations around the Island. I think they appeal to me so deeply partly because of the Roald Dahl book, Boy, an autobiography of Roald Dahl’s own childhood.

It was something of a bible to me - charting the development of an understanding of his own character through a series of defining episodes. His summer holidays were spent with his spectacular widowed mother - who took her five children to her native Norway every summer to spend six weeks bobbing about in a small dinghy and jumping into cool water. In it, the whole family, sometimes with an old aunt or extra teenager in tow - stayed in the same simple family run hotel every year - and it looked like the most exciting and perfect of summers.

The simplicity, the charm, the freedom.

It is even more beguiling now than it was to me as a child. And I think interesting that Lindenberg have made a move in this direction - for story telling purposes much more than actually selling rooms - but it is an interesting signal from a large hotel group.

At Borradill we have begun to think about the possibilities for the Viking Wellness stories to be brought to life for our guests. Still on the drawing board but we’re imagining what the next generation of West Coast seasonal wellness rituals might be.