A new outdoor sauna and cold water bathing site is opening in Harrogate today (Friday).
Cold Bath Plunge, off Crag Lane next to Bamber & Brown café, offers a wood-fired sauna, three cold plunge tubs at different temperatures, hot and cold showers and changing cubicles.
The business has been founded by Harrogate’s Guy Coates, who returned to his hometown after spending around eight years working as a financial services consultant in London.
Guy, who struggled with depression for much of that time, said regular visits to an outdoor swimming pool helped inspire the venture.
He said:
“I found the work and the environment soulless and massively unfulfilling. I tried tablets and I tried therapy to get me through but nothing seemed to work.
“I'd been reading a lot about cold water and anxiety and depression, and I started swimming at the Parliament Hill lido in Hampstead Heath every morning, more or less as a last resort.
“After a few weeks I noticed I was thinking more clearly, and the sauna afterwards turned out to be as much of it as the water was, because you end up talking to random people. That was the part I hadn't expected.”
He left his job 12 months ago and moved back in with his parents to build the business from scratch.
Guy said:
“It took a while to get the confidence back but once I had it, I took the plunge and quit. I wanted people here to be able to get what I got out of it.”
The secluded, off-grid site is surrounded by woodland. Alongside paid bookings, Guy plans to run regular community sessions for selected local groups, with the aim of making the experience more accessible.
The venture also draws on Harrogate’s history as a spa town. Its first mineral spring was discovered in 1571, with more than 80 recorded in the town afterwards.
Guy said:
“That's a big part of why I did it here. Harrogate is a spa town and it's mostly spoken about in the past tense, which seems like a shame when the whole reason the town exists is people coming here to get in the water. I'd like to help make something of that again.”
He has also worked with Harrogate historian Harry Does History on an Instagram series called ‘Taking the Plunge’, exploring the town’s bathing history and the development of the site.
Cold Bath Plunge will operate Wednesday to Sunday, with 50-minute sessions costing £16. All sessions must be booked in advance.
The site is also available for private bookings, corporate groups and events.
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