No. We're an independent, not-for-profit community interest company, founded in Glasgow in 2025. We're part of a wider UK community sauna movement, but GCS is owned by no one, run from Glasgow, and everything on site was designed and built by our own team.

A standard session is £12 and includes the sauna and all the cold plunges. We also run free and subsidised sessions with community partners through Pay It Forward.

Yes, sessions are booked online through our booking page. Some sessions sell out, so booking ahead is worth it, especially at weekends.

Swimwear, a towel to sit on, a second towel for drying off, and a water bottle. Something cosy for afterwards is a good shout too.

Completely. Every session is hosted, and if it's your first visit we'll show you round, explain how everything works, and answer anything you're wondering about. Around ten minutes in the heat is plenty to start with, then step out, rest and see how you feel.

We aim for around 80 to 95 degrees, but it varies a lot by seat. The benches near the stove run hottest, and the lower benches and the seats by the door are noticeably gentler. There's a comfier spot for everyone, and our hosts will happily point you to it.

We've got three. Two are chilled and filtered, running at around 3 to 6 degrees whatever the weather's doing. The third is a big metal bathtub, filtered but not chilled, which makes it the gentler starting point. All of them are always optional.

Yes, nine of them, including accessible changing, plus lockers, toilets and outdoor showers. Please shower before you plunge, and skip the shampoo and soap outdoors, as the water feeds our plants.

Yes. We're Scotland's first wheelchair-accessible sauna: step-free throughout, an accessible changing room with a fold-out ramp, a ramped entrance to the big sauna, a lowered cold shower, and removable benches inside. Email us before your visit and we'll talk through anything you need.

Exactly what it sounds like: a session with no chat, for a proper quiet reset. The horsebox currently runs as our dedicated silent sauna on weekday evenings and some weekend sessions. Check our booking page for up to date session info.

We don’t offer refunds, but you can reschedule your booking up to 12 hours in advance.

We do, and they make a grand present. Digital vouchers are on our gift vouchers page, delivered by email and ready to book with.

Yes, monthly memberships from £36 that save up to 31% a session. All the details, including how billing and cancellations work, are on our memberships page and in the booking system's membership FAQs.

Yes: the horsebox (7 seats), the big sauna (13 seats), or the whole site. Email us with your dates and group size.

Heat and cold both put a load on the body. If you're pregnant, have a heart condition or blood pressure issues, or take medication affecting circulation or temperature, check with your GP first. And please don't sauna after alcohol.

49 McCulloch Street, Pollokshields, Glasgow, G41 1SU, about five minutes' walk from Pollokshields East. Parking is free on McCulloch Street and nearby, just mind the double yellows.

Hidden. Some people even miss us when they’re coming for a session. We're near the endof a quiet dead-end street, next to a former bowling green, so the site feels like a secret garden: green, calm and surprisingly peaceful for the Southside. It's a big part of why people come. Look out for the wooden gates and sign.

Aufguss is a German sauna ritual: water and essential oils poured over the hot stones, with the steam worked through the room by a sauna master using a towel or fan. It runs around 12 to 15 minutes, often with music, and the heat arrives in waves rather than steadily. We run monthly Aufguss ceremonies with Anna Tiia Sorjonen of Kaski Sauna Sessions. You just sit and breathe, and you can step out any time.

Whisking involves a bundle of soft, soaked birch branches being swept and tapped over your body in the heat, moving hot air across your skin and filling the sauna with the smell of wet leaves. It's much gentler than it sounds, closer to a massage than anything else, and deeply relaxing. Phyllis from Five Birches runs our monthly whisking sessions.