Seaweed, soil and serenity: Northern Ireland is a secret spa haven

I lost my mind again today. Somewhere in this boulder-strewn forest, it vanished: I exhaled, and where the worries once were was instead pristine emptiness. Pure awareness, unblemished by thought, fear, or daydream. A few seconds later, I’m back on Earth – specifically, in a forest bathing workshop in Northern Ireland, on a blustery Saturday morning.

“Just listen,” says a voice, and right on cue a great gust of wind shakes a sigh from the trees. “Just listen to the birdsong,” it continues, and the jubilant clamour of the birds suddenly rings.

The voice belongs to Ann Ward, our guide and founder of Xhale. A mindfulness and meditation coach, she hosts workshops here at Killeavy Castle Estate in Northern Ireland’s southeastern reaches. Forest bathing might be new to most Brits but it’s a natural fit with the local traditions here, where the landscape has been revered for centuries. This is the Ring of Gullion, an area of outstanding natural beauty and – as Ann reveals – hallowed ground.

“This is Slieve Gullion, the heart of the Ring of Gullion,” she begins, gesturing to the heather-clad slopes behind us. “According to local legend, it’s not a mountain – it’s a sleeping giant.” Feet rooted to the mossy ground, I’m starting to feel held by the landscape.

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“We’ve lost our connection to nature,” says Ann. “Forest bathing is about getting it back.”

In pursuit of this grounded, earthbound sensation, Ann shows us how to focus our attention in each step. Our senses, usually in the service of thought, are liberated. You can feel them unfurling like sleepy limbs. Reach out and clutch a mulchy handful of leaves. Dig your fingers into the soil and smell the earth. I feel calm and present, but the benefits go deeper. Published studies have shown both physiological and psychological improvements. One meta analysis found that forest bathing “significantly reduces” blood pressure, while another meta analysis of 11 Japanese studies demonstrated that it diminishes anxiety and increases feelings of joy and contentment.

Northern Ireland might seem a surprising candidate for top British wellness destination. But it’s no surprise to anyone actually living here. Clean, crisp coastline, vast freshwater lakes and a rich cultural heritage: it’s the natural choice, in more ways than one.

Take Killeavy Castle. Long derelict, it’s now been transformed – tastefully – into a hotel and spa. Amid 350 acres of rolling hills, its team grows their own vegetables. They raise their own cattle. Their tasting menu features home-brewed kombucha, local mead, and scallops caught on the Atlantic coast. “I grew up here,” says Ciaran, our waiter. “As a boy I loved playing in the castle. It’s good to see life in the old place.”

We’re staying in the newly refurbished coach houses, perched below the 19th-century castle. Our floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the plush and pillowy patchwork of farm and forest that is County Armagh. As well as two-day forest bathing workshops led by Ann, Killeavy also offers sustainable foraging, guided hikes to the summit Slieve Gullion, and e-bikes to explore the surrounding forest. Walk into the castle proper, and you’ll find original woodwork, ancient furniture, little doors once flung wide by scurrying servants.

Wellness retreats are increasingly popular for Brits staying within the isles. But in Northern Ireland, these newly trendy practices are actually deep-rooted traditions. In Newcastle, a seaside resort in County Down, I visit Soak Seaweed Baths – until very recently the only seaweed bath house in the UK. Yet seaweed has been used therapeutically in Ireland since at least the 12th century. On the wave of wellness, it’s making a comeback. “Backwards: it’s the new forwards,” quips the Baths’ owner, Dermot Devine.

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So how does it work? “We’re 70 per cent water,” says Dermott. “We need water-soluble minerals. Most of these flow from the rivers into the sea. Seaweed is rich in them.” Seaweed absorbs vitamins and minerals, including zinc, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids. A 2019 study showed that seaweed’s anti-inflammatory properties can ease stress and relieve sore muscles; meanwhile, polysaccharides, found only in brown algae, moisturise skin and aid skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema.

Standing on the Victorian seafront in a bay-windowed townhouse, Soak feels charmingly antiquated. The seaweed is gathered into buckets, the seawater pumped in from the beach. There are standalone bathtubs and Victorian steam boxes, great wooden contraptions that leave your head poking out from the boards like a novelty fairground photograph. You pick a CD soundtrack from the front desk. It’s homespun and friendly, with locals and tourists alike pouring in all afternoon.

I watch Dermot prepare my bath, the tangled strands softening and becoming lighter as the water heats. “I harvest all the seaweed by hand,” he says. “I blend the different kinds .” There are different kinds? “Over 200 varieties,” Dermot says, his eyes twinkling at his specialist subject.

After a quick go in the Victorian steam box to open my pores, I step into the murky green water. Slimy tentacles brush against my skin, the seawater seething and salty. But wait – it’s not slimy. Drifting my fingers through the water, the right word is silky. My whole body softens into the bath’s velvety embrace.

Half an hour later, happily dazed, we emerge feeling shiny and new. “You’ve run out of questions now, haven’t ya?” jokes Dermot. “That’s the seaweed working.”

Driving inland, the road leads us through forest and glen, pursuing the sunset westward. We arrive by starlight in Finn Lough, a prestigious wellness retreat on the lake of the same name. Silhouetted kayaks drift on the blackness, surrounded by sleepy spruce.

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Guests flock to Finn Lough for a different kind of therapy – bedding down beneath the stars under a space-age glass dome. But we’ve opted for a lakeside lodge, where floor-to-ceiling windows bring the silvery shore right to the fireside. The peace is absolute, the silence total.

Yet Finn Lough offers more than scenic isolation. We arrive at The Barn restaurant to find a stylish, Scandi-style dining room humming with the chattering of the chic. Velour booths, vines dangling above tables of rough-hewn wood, and bright-eyed waiters and waitresses from around the world: it’s more centre of the universe than middle-of-nowhere.

The next morning, we immerse ourselves in the Elements Trail, Finn Lough’s outdoor spa. Decked in cultish robes, we meander from lodge to lodge on a two-hour trail, taking treatments where we find them. There’s a flotation chamber, where salts bob your body like a rubber duck. There are Finnish saunas sitting above the water, with expansive views of the lake. There’s a chillout room with pots of sencha and chamomile tea. It’s so well choreographed: rather than passively submitting to yet another massage, you lope through the trees, showering off beneath the branches and birdsong.

But if this trip has taught me anything, it’s that actually getting into the landscape is the best therapy of all. Before my mind can plead otherwise, I plunge into the glassy winter lakewater. My head emerges from the icy depths just in time to register a primitive cry.

Ten strokes, 12, and January’s frozen grip squeezes me out. I clamber onto shore, my body glowing, my cells a screaming choir of gladness – and my head at peace. Losing your mind? It’s never been so easy.

Killeavy Castle Estate’s Nurturing Nature Retreat has breaks for two from £700, including two nights’ full board in a double room, Xhale’s two-hour forest bathing experience on both days, spa access, one treatment per person, and a seven-course dinner on the evening of your arrival. Xhale offers a range of mindfulness, meditation, and forest bathing workshops from £72 a session.

Soak Seaweed Baths is on the beautiful South Promenade in Newcastle, County Down, with treatments from £25.

Finn Lough is a luxury spa hideaway in County Fermanagh with lake suites from £195 per night, B&B, forest bubble domes from £335 per night, B&B, and the Elements Spa trail from £85.