Kiln Sauna Pavilion opens above Porthmeor Beach in St Ives

Climb the hill behind Tate St Ives and you now arrive at heat. Kiln Sauna Pavilion has opened on the western edge of town, perched above the curve of Porthmeor Beach with the Atlantic laid out in front of it, from Man’s Head across to The Island. It is a place built for warmth, stillness and the changing light, and it is open from sunrise until sunset.

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

A third site with Falmouth roots

The pavilion is the work of Kathryn Tyler and Angus Thatcher, both Falmouth locals, and it is their third Kiln site. The pair drew on sauna traditions from around the world, and the name carries its own bit of Cornish history. Kiln is a nod to the county’s lime burning heritage in the 18th and 19th centuries, when kilns lined the coast and tidal rivers where coal could be brought in easily. Kathryn and Angus then found an echo of that idea in Korea, in the tradition of Hanjeungmak, where the leftover warmth of extinguished kilns was used for sauna sessions. That fusion of Cornish and Korean history sits behind the name.

St Ives has pulled artists, makers and wanderers west for generations, drawn by coastal light that shifts by the hour. Kiln Sauna Pavilion steps into that lineage a few moments from the galleries of Tate St Ives, offering the same elements that inspired painters and poets, now met through heat, sea air and ritual.

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

Built into the hillside

The structure emerges gently from the slope. Soil moved during the levelling of the site has been sculpted into a tiered grass amphitheatre, its terraces looking out across the bay, and the surrounding land is being planted with hardy maritime native flora chosen to cope with salt air and Atlantic winds.

The buildings are arranged in a courtyard, which gives lightweight shelter from the prevailing winds while keeping the sea in view. Visitors move from brisk coastal air into radiant warmth, with room for conversation or quiet. Each sauna has been oriented towards either sunrise or sunset, so every session is shaped by the light of that hour.

There are two 12-seater saunas on the site. The larger volumes and deeper benches continue Kiln’s social sauna tradition, where side-by-side heat tends to loosen conversation between strangers and friends alike. One of the two can run as a silent sauna given over to complete stillness, or as a soundscape sauna where curated audio deepens the sense of escape. Alongside the saunas are five cold plunge baths at different temperatures and cold showers. Water from the plunges, the showers and a rainwater harvesting system is filtered and reused to irrigate the landscape around the site.

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

What it costs and who it’s for

Social sessions are £12 for 45 minutes. A private sauna for up to 11 people is £100, and full hire of the pavilion for up to 22 people is £320. The site is wheelchair accessible throughout, with the exception of the cold plunge baths, and sessions can be booked online through the Kiln Sauna website. There is also a yoga and wellness lawn, and the grass amphitheatre is set up for talks, discussions and community gatherings.

Kathryn Tyler says the intention was for the pavilion to feel settled from the start. “From the very beginning, we wanted Kiln Sauna Pavilion to feel as though it had always belonged here,” she says. “St Ives has an extraordinary relationship with light, landscape and creativity, and we wanted to create a place where people could experience those same qualities in a completely different way, through warmth, stillness and connection. Sauna has an incredible ability to slow us down and bring people together, whether you’re sharing conversation with friends, meeting someone new, or simply taking a quiet moment for yourself. We hope the Pavilion becomes somewhere people return to throughout the seasons, not just to enjoy the views, but to reconnect with nature, with one another and with themselves.”

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

A wider programme still to come

Beyond the day-to-day sessions, Kiln is planning a run of community wellbeing activities. The programme is not finalised yet, but the ideas on the table include meditation sessions, sound baths, multi-bed community acupuncture, menopause support groups, regular family sauna sessions during weekends and school holidays, and socially prescribed sauna sessions. There are also plans for traditional sauna rituals, neurodivergent quiet sessions run at reduced capacity, and men’s and women’s wellbeing groups. The short walk up from the beach, they hope, becomes a ritual of its own.

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht

📷Credit: Lucy Laucht