The multi award winning SOAK Seaweed baths is the only bathhouse of its kind in the UK. SOAK offers hot seawater and fresh seaweed baths. A session takes place in a private bathroom and starts with a short steam in an individual steam cabinet in order to open the pores ready for the bath. The seaweed bath then detoxifies the body and enriches the skin with vitamins A & K, giving a natural glow. Finally the skins pores are closed with a freshwater jet spa shower leaving you ready to face the world again!

Seaweed baths are not a new concept. In fact they have been used for centuries (mainly by the rural farming community), as they have been found invaluable for easing rheumatic aches and relieving painful skin conditions. This kind of natural treatment is increasingly popular nowadays with forward thinking people seeking alternative therapies. Part of the process of setting up the bathhouse involved looking closely at the biomass of seaweed available in the areas which they hoped to harvest. SOAK worked closely with the Environment and Heritage Service of Northern Ireland and the Mourne Heritage Trust as well as commissioning Marine Biologist Dr Daryl Birkett to develop a sustainable harvesting plan for the small scale harvesting of the inter-tidal seaweeds they would need. The harvesting plan which SOAK adheres to covers a large area of coast, approximately 65 miles. This ensures no one stretch of coast is over harvested. In addition to this no area is ever strip harvested (this is achieved by ensuring that no more than 75 percent of any one plant is taken and not all plants are cut). In practice it is a very simple process as the plants vary in size and since it is obviously easier and more time efficient to harvest the biggest plants that means the younger smaller immature plants are left intact. In addition, as all of the harvesting is tide dependant, large swathes of coastline are not accessible for most of the year meaning there is an abundance of mature plants at all times and in all harvesting areas. Seaweed works a bit like flowers in that it uses a pollinating process to reproduce, this practice ensures that there are plenty of spores still present in any one area and ensures the next generation of plants will prosper since competition for space is not so intense. All harvesting is done by hand and particular attention is given to seasonal events such as migrating birds, nesting etc. Once the seaweed has been harvested it is transported to SOAK's premises and is gently rinsed in fresh water.

When preparing a seaweed bath for a customer, a bucket of the lush fresh seaweed is scalded in seawater which allows all the minerals, vitamins and natural oils to be released. It is then placed into a bath full of hot seawater. Customers lie back relax and enjoy the SOAK while the seaweed aids the soothing, de-toxing and replenishing of their body. Completing the sustainability cycle, the used seaweed is collected from the baths by a local farmer who uses it as natural fertiliser. This harks back to another age-old practice in the Mourne AONB, where use of seaweed to enrich the poor acidic soils was crucial to making this quite unfertile land capable of sustaining its people through farming. Indeed most farmers cultivated seaweed for this purpose by placing on the shore granite stones similar to those used to make the distinctive dry stone walls surrounding their small fields, to which seaweed would then attach and grow.

For further information contact: Soak Seaweed Baths, 5 South Promenade, Newcastle, Co Down, Northern Ireland BT33 0EX Tel : 44 (0) 28 4372 6002 Email : info@soakgroup.co.uk Web : www.soakgroup.com Proprietors : Claire Dickinson & Dermot Devine