The 10 best saunas in Scotland

The most complete day out on the list. A lochside spa at Taymouth Marina pairing a wood-fired sauna and steam room with a heated outdoor pool, and a cold plunge fed straight from Loch Tay. The same operator runs HotBoat, Scotland's first floating sauna, from the jetty in front.

Scotland's first mobile wood-fired sauna, most often stationed above the tombolo at St Ninian's Beach in south Shetland. That is about as far north as the ritual goes in Britain. Six to an Estonian hut on a HUUM stove, with the cold side coming straight off the North Atlantic.

Two Siberian cedar barrels on Edinburgh's Granton waterfront, beside The Pitt market. Big Bear seats eighteen and Little Bear six, both facing the Firth of Forth with direct sea access between rounds. The community sessions pull a real crowd; Thursday and Friday are the quieter slots.

A clifftop pair above Quarrel Sands at Canty Bay, one wood-fired and one electric. There is a plunge pool, and Drift Coffeehouse next door for afterwards. Thirty minutes from Edinburgh, but with the Firth of Forth below it feels properly remote.

Set beside the restored Cellardyke tidal pool in the East Neuk of Fife, looking east across the Forth to the Isle of May. The cold side is the sea itself. Book a round and drop straight into the pool between sits.

A wood-fired community sauna on the Union Canal in west Edinburgh, with three cold plunge pools and three cold showers in rotation. That is the most generous contrast setup in the city. Open sessions run alongside guided Saunagus, aufguss with aromatherapy, from Friday to Sunday.

A wood-fired sauna that moves between Mull's piers and bays, among them Salen, Tobermory, Fidden and Portnangael. The sound is a few steps away for the dip, with homemade teas and fruit platters between rounds. Community sessions and ninety-minute private hires for up to eight.

A twelve-person Finnish sauna working a circuit of the East Coast, from Kingsbarns and St Andrews to Elie, Eden Springs and Forbes of Kingennie. It anchors at Kingsbarns Beach, looking out over the North Sea. The biggest cabin on the list, and the one to book for a group.

Wood-fired heat and cold-dook barrels in the grounds of the West of Scotland Cricket Club. Surprisingly peaceful for somewhere this central. Sixty-minute public sessions, aufguss led by qualified masters, and memberships for the regulars.

A trio of mobile wood-fired saunas working the beaches of Lewis, Harris, Berneray and North Uist, every one with an ocean view. Mara, most often parked at Bayble Beach east of Stornoway, is the easiest to catch. The Outer Hebrides at their most elemental.