Home

Who
What
Where
When
Why
Tirkane Sweat House
 

County

Derry

Coordinates

N 54° 51' 57.5"   W 006° 42' 48.9"

Nearest town

Maghera

Grid Ref.

C 82658 02477

Map No.

8

Elevation a.s.l. (m)

144

Date of visit

Monday 25 May 2009

GPS Accuracy (m)

10
Show Google Map              Show Monuments in the area

   
PREVIOUS      NEXT
The sweat house seen from the outside.


This is the first sweat house I've ever seen. It's nothing more than a stone and turf hut where people used to sit inside to treat rheumatisms and other kinds of pain. Right outside the hut there's a cold water pool where people would cool off after the treatment in the hot steam of the sweat house.
The space inside is about 1 metre wide by 2.5 metres long, and even though it may sound like a tiny place, it was large enough for sitting four people.
A big turf or wooden fire was lit inside the hut, and when the interior was hot enough the fire was drawn out. Some brackens were put on the floor and sometime some water was poured on the ground to create the steam needed to make the hut a sauna. The naked people would crawl inside, the entrance was blocked and people was left inside for about half an hour. Some of them would faint for the hot and had to be pulled out.


Browse by Monument Type
Browse by County
Browse by Date of Visit
Browse by Map Number

A-Z List

Clickable Counties
Clickable OS Maps Grid

Find a Map

Multimap

The days before GPS

The Stones in the Movies

Glossary
Links
Guestbook
FAQ

What's NEW?


Search


Site view counter: 21777205

Copyright © 1994-2024 Antonio D'Imperio
All the photos, the graphics and the texts on this website are automatically copyrighted to me under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886. Any violation of the copyright will be pursued according to the applicable laws.

info@irishstones.org

Powered by AxeCMS/CustomEngine(V0.25.00 build 999) by Sergio "Axeman" Lorenzetti. (C) 2009-2015

counter