From Glamping to Wellness: Catching Up with Yurtshire
From Glamping to Wellness: Catching Up with Yurtshire
Sometimes the best conversations happen when you get away from the office.
Mark, Director of Kirami UK, recently headed over to Yurtshire at Eavestone Lake in North Yorkshire for a long-overdue catch-up with founder Tommy Sterne and unsurprisingly, the conversation soon turned to all things outdoor wellness.
For us, visits like this are invaluable. It's one thing to talk about how a sauna, hot tub or cold plunge works within a hospitality setting. It's another to sit down with a business that's been living with the products, listening to its guests and seeing first-hand how people's expectations of a UK break are changing.
And at Yurtshire, that change is particularly interesting.
A shared love of the outdoors
Yurtshire's story began back in 2009, when Tommy discovered luxury camping while living in Kenya and saw an opportunity to bring the experience back to Yorkshire.
His idea was about much more than simply finding somewhere different to sleep. The aim was to create somewhere people could escape, reconnect with nature and spend meaningful time together.
There's a natural connection there with Kirami.
Our Finnish approach to outdoor living has always centred around making time to slow down, getting outside and enjoying simple experiences with the people around you.
Over the years, Yurtshire has continued to develop that original idea. At its Eavestone Lake location, guests stay in Tree-Yurts tucked amongst the woodland, each with its own private outdoor hot tub. Beyond the accommodation itself, guests can now experience wild swimming, sauna and ice bathing alongside yoga, massage and other wellness activities.
When a sauna becomes part of the destination
Nestled amongst the trees at Eavestone Lake is Yurtshire's glass-fronted Kirami outdoor sauna.
Reached along a woodland path and overlooking its natural surroundings, it's exactly the sort of setting in which an outdoor sauna makes sense.
During Mark and Tommy's catch-up, one of the most interesting things they discussed was just how popular the sauna has become.
It isn't only something guests use because it happens to be there during their stay. Wellness has developed into an experience in its own right.
Yurtshire now welcomes people who aren't staying on site to book its wellness facilities too. Day visitors can currently book a Swim, Sauna & Ice Bath experience at Eavestone Lake, combining the site's spring-fed private lake with the Kirami wood-fired sauna and an ice bath.
That's an interesting shift.
Someone doesn't necessarily need to book a weekend away to want an hour or two outside, away from screens and everyday routines.
Sometimes they simply want to swim, get warm, cool down and spend time with somebody else.
From an added extra to a bookable experience
For hospitality businesses, that's perhaps the most interesting part of Yurtshire's story.
A sauna can undoubtedly add value to an overnight stay, but it can potentially do considerably more than that.
Yurtshire's sauna is complimentary for staying guests, subject to availability, while dedicated sessions are also available to day visitors. The current bookable Swim, Sauna & Ice Bath experience is a 1.5-hour session for groups of two to four people.
That was something Mark and Tommy spent time discussing: the growing appetite for accessible outdoor wellness and the opportunity it presents for hospitality businesses.
Yurtshire has gone even further with this idea. Its Eavestone Lake site now offers corporate wellness experiences for groups, alongside its programme of yoga, wild swimming and other wellness events.
What started as luxury glamping has gradually become a much broader outdoor experience.
Hot. Cold. Outside.
Another interesting development is the way different elements of wellness now work together.
At Eavestone Lake, visitors can move from the spring-fed lake to the warmth of the wood-fired sauna and then into an ice bath. Yurtshire also offers standalone wild-swimming sessions, while staying guests have access to the outdoor sauna and ice bath as part of their stay.
It's a simple combination, but that's part of its appeal.
There doesn't have to be anything complicated about outdoor wellness. Heat, cold, fresh air, nature and time.
For Kirami, it's particularly satisfying to see one of our Finnish saunas becoming part of that experience here in Yorkshire.
Why seeing our products in the real world matters
Yurtshire is also a great example of why we encourage people considering a Kirami product to experience one for themselves.
A photograph can show you the design of a sauna. A specification can tell you its dimensions, heater and materials.
What neither can completely communicate is what it's like to close the door, feel the heat build and look out through the glass into the trees.
That's why businesses such as Yurtshire are an important part of the wider Kirami story.
Kirami UK now supplies hospitality businesses across the country, and our website currently maps around 260 locations where Kirami products can be found, including Yurtshire at Eavestone Lake.
It gives people an opportunity to experience authentic Finnish outdoor wellness in a real setting rather than simply looking at a product in isolation.
More than somewhere to stay
Mark's catch-up with Tommy reinforced something we've been seeing more and more through our hospitality customers.
People aren't necessarily looking for more things to do when they get away.
Often, they're looking for permission to do less.
To put their phones away. Go for a swim. Sit in a sauna. Talk. Spend an evening outside. Return home feeling as though they've actually had a break.
Yurtshire has managed to make those experiences feel completely at home within its woodland setting and seeing the Kirami sauna becoming such a popular part of both overnight stays and bookable day experiences is fantastic.
Thanks to Tommy for the catch-up, the coffee and the opportunity to see how the space continues to evolve.
We don't think it will be too long before Mark finds another excuse to pop back.
Experience Kirami at Yurtshire
If you'd like to experience the setting for yourself, you can explore stays and wellness experiences directly through Yurtshire.
If you're a holiday park, glamping site, hotel, retreat or hospitality business considering adding outdoor wellness, you can also speak to the Kirami UK team about saunas, hot tubs, cold tubs and creating a setup that works commercially as well as aesthetically.
Give us a call today on 01748889303 and we will be sure to help you make your dream a reality. Alternatively visit us at at Kirami HQ we'd love to see you.
The Log Company (Richmond) Ltd,
Forcett Grange,
Forcett,
Richmond,
DL11 7SQ,