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Com Úra, Iveragh Peninsula, county Kerry.
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An intact sweat house, one of only 3 recorded so far in Kerry. A fire was built inside and raked out. Then it operated as a theraputic sauna with space for 1 or 2 people. Hand visible just inside for scale.
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Wow, I’ve never heard of these existing in Ireland.
I suppose the bloody vikings brought that idea with them, the divils!
They’re a bit later than the Vikings. Bronze Age ones are known, I excavated one in Carlow.
http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/sweathouses.htm
Hah, for a second there I read “excavated” as “evacuated” – interesting work I’d say.
The Vikings didn’t bring saunas to Ireland. They brought sweaty bodily odour. Sweathouses were independently designed about four centuries ago in the West and North West by the Irish peasantry seeking to cure arthritis and other aches and pains. After the hot ashes were swept out from inside a stone sweathouse, and the floor was then covered in leaves and reeds, a couple of naked people crawled into the tiny entrance and sweated it out patiently in the warm smoky interior. Good old Irish health known-how.
Christy Moore was reared in one.