Wicklow: Wild at heart

The Strawberry Tree, Brooklodge Hotel & Macreddin Village, Aughrim, Co Wicklow; 0402 36444; brooklodge.com

The salon-style dining rooms at The Strawberry Tree are deeply decadent, with velvet wallpaper, black-as-chrome ceilings and marble-effect carpets.

IT’S a dark, squelchy evening. We’re driving into the depths of Co Wicklow, with roads getting rougher by the minute. Every now and then, we turn a corner to be swallowed up by a spectral pocket of fog. Between Rathdrum and Macreddin Village, a fox bolts from the hedgerows.