Woodland Wild Swim and Sauna

There is a timber sauna pod on the bank of a lake at Carlton Miniott, it holds eight people, and every booking comes with a swim in the lake. That combination, hot box and cold water within about four steps of each other, is the whole point of the place, and it is six minutes from Thirsk market square.

It is new. Wild swimming opened here in July 2025 and the company behind it was incorporated that October. A second sauna, this one for families, went in on the paddleboarding lake in June 2026, which matters because the original sauna is adults only and that ruled out anyone with children.

Summer hours run 6am to 9pm. A swim before work in June is a real option, which is not something you can say about many places within six minutes of a market town.

West out of Thirsk on the A61 through Carlton Miniott, then south down Coney Garth Lane. Two and a half miles, six minutes, postcode YO7 4NJ.

Thirsk station is in Carlton Miniott, so it is nearer than the town: about a mile and a quarter, twenty five minutes on foot. Walking from the square takes three quarters of an hour along the A61 and is not a pleasant walk.

The lane is shared with a holiday park and a fishing complex, and each has a separate reception and a separate phone number. For the swimming and the sauna, the number is 07346 115958.

Book first, because you cannot do anything else. Every activity here is pre-booked online and the site says outright that walk-ins are not taken. The sauna caps at eight people in an hour-long slot, and slots run Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The standard shape of a visit is an hour: sauna, then into the lake, then back into the sauna, repeated until you have had enough. Adult sessions are 18 and over. The family sauna on the paddleboarding lake is the one to book if children are coming.

Paddleboarding runs separately, daily from 8am to 8pm, at 15 a board, and children are welcome with an adult. There is a jetty on the family lake.

If you want to stay, there is a teepee at 80 a night which is pet friendly and includes free wild swimming for the group, plus two pods with hot tubs.

The sauna by the water is the thing. Plenty of places will sell you a sauna and plenty will sell you a swim, and having them four steps apart is what makes the hour work.

The family sauna is the recent change worth knowing about. Until June 2026 the sauna here was adults only, so a family either split up or did not come. Now there are family slots on the calendar.

Summer opening from six in the morning is unusually generous, and early is when open water is at its best: flat, quiet, and nobody else in it.

Ring 07346 115958 before you plan anything around a price, because the session prices are not published anywhere public. They sit inside the booking widget and we are not going to guess at them. Paddleboards are 15 and that figure is on the open site.

Do not confuse this with the indoor pool on the same lane. That belongs to the holiday park, costs 7 for an adult, and is heated. This is a lake. The two get merged constantly, including by review sites, and a run of angry reviews about open-water swimming in August 2026 has ended up attached to listings for the pool.

Nothing is published about changing rooms, showers or toilets, and nothing about how you get in and out of the water if steps are difficult. That is worth a call rather than an assumption.

Open water is colder than it looks, even in August, and there is no lifeguard mentioned anywhere. Go with somebody, and if you have never swum in a lake before, the sauna sessions are a gentler way in than turning up for a swim on its own.