Inspirational food for thought in Brooklodge, Wicklow

Joe McNamee basks in the comforts of Ireland’s only organic hotel, the Brooklodge Hotel & Wells Spa, in Macreddin Village.

THERE is really only one way to travel to Brooklodge — by train. Sure, driving to Wicklow is always lovely but it’s hard to beat the sensation of escaping rush hour Dublin, mopping a sweaty brow, still panting as you wangle a window seat and then beginning the leaving of the capital and a gradual, gorgeous immersion into its hinterland on a brilliant-bright Irish morning.

First, we spy on increasingly salubrious back gardens the further south the train chugs along Ireland’s ‘Riviera’ until eventually the line turns inland somewhere around Wicklow town, heading for the green woody heartland of the Garden County.