The Corkman who invented the Roman-Irish baths
IN the spa towns of Germany and Switzerland, patrons can indulge in the Roman-Irish nude bath. At the 19th century bathing palace in Baden-Baden for example, clients are put through a 17-stage ritual of two hours and 45 minutes. Their body is gently warmed-up, soaped, massaged and gently cooled-down, before being dried and deposited in the resting area; a blissful halfway house between Roman-Irish heaven and life. Mark Twain, who visited the baths, said: “Here at the Friedrichsbad you lose track of time within 10 minutes and track of the world within 20 ...”.
Why does our damp little island share billing with the bathing superpower that was Imperial Rome? The inventor of the Roman-Irish bath was our own Dr Richard Barter (1802-1870), of Cooldaniel, Co. Cork. The crumbling remains of his hydropathic baths at St Ann’s, near Blarney, are gradually going back to nature. On that site, in 1856, Dr Barter built the first Turkish bath in Britain or Ireland.
