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Review: Vital Leisure & Beauty Spa, nr Manchester
This revamped spa, just north of Manchester, left our reviewer slippery-limbed and loose
The Dunkenhalgh
Blackburn Rd
Clayton-le-Moors
Accrington BB5 5JP
Tel: 01254 398021
www.dunkenhalgh.com
Accrington isn't the first place you think of when you imagine a spa weekend. It's probably not the fourth or fifth, either. I personally can't see the footballers' wives falling over their Manolos to desert the spas of Cheshire to prowl this suburb north of Manchester. But the haunted four-star Dunkenhalgh Hotel and its 'rejuvenated' spa and leisure complex Vital are aiming to put Accrington on the spa map.
The revitalised Vital, which debuted late 2004, has always had a loyal local crowd packing the busy gym. But the new spa facilities now focus on pampering packages with a host of new facilities. The additions include a large suite of treatment rooms, a 12-metre heated pool, an aroma grotto and steam bath, two saunas, an ice fountain and a laconium. For spa-goers like me - without any idea of how to use the various rooms and services - friendly and patient staff are on hand to explain.
The real relevation for me was the laconium. Invented by the Romans to ease the muscles of its finest warriors, it's a tiled, heated room which is cooler than a steamroom or sauna. It isn't a sweatbox that leaves you dripping. Instead, its warmth seeped into my bones as I relaxed inside for 20 minutes. The azure and white tiles radiated heat: I felt like I was sitting on a sun-baked wall in the Mediterranean. I could have stayed there all day.
But I had other fish to fry (or stones to bake, really) as I headed down to the treatment rooms, through a maze of corridors, past the gym and the tanning salon and then the gym again...I got well and truly lost. Once I'd found my way past the Stairmaster my stress levels were high and I was well in need of the Hot Stone Massage. The brochure shows a woman serenely lying on a couch with huge stones down her spine. Once you're having the treatment though, you realise that's not possible - we're talking really hot stones! They basically become an extension of the therapist's hands, who utilises their warmth and pressure to induce incredible relaxation. Post-treatment, I sat in a state of bliss for over half an hour before I could tackle the journey through the gym back to my clothes.
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