Spirit Tree Wellness

Spirit Tree Wellness in Hamilton serves the horse country of Essex County, an unusually rural pocket of eastern Massachusetts.

Hamilton and neighbouring Wenham hold Myopia Hunt Club, one of the oldest polo grounds in the country, and a landscape of stone walls, hayfields and trails that has more in common with rural Vermont than with the coastal towns ten miles east. It is a setting that suits the practice.

Sauna traditions everywhere developed in rural places, and the modern urban studio — a cabin in a retail unit, booked by the slot, entered and exited within the hour — is a considerable departure from the original context. A room in the countryside with somewhere to walk afterwards is closer to how the practice was meant to work.

The Ipswich River and the Essex County Greenbelt trails run nearby, giving practical options for the cold half of the circuit in its original form rather than in a tub.

Hamilton is on the Newburyport commuter line, roughly forty minutes from North Station. Sessions book ahead; hours at small practices are often narrow.