ETHICAL TRAVELLER:SERENDIPITY can be a lifesaver. About 10 years ago, at one of those crucial turning points in life, when I didn't know which road to take, a friend asked me to mind his cottage in Co Wicklow for a few months.
Within a week I, my husband and our baby had run to the hills. It was a healing, uplifting and bonding escape for all of us, so for me the county will always be a place to reconnect with life and breathe again.
A recent trip back took me farther east of the mountains this time, but a short stay was just enough to whet my Wicklow appetite once more.
I stayed in one of the most stylish ecofriendly houses in Ireland, the Old Milking Parlour at Ballymurrin House (ballymurrin.ie), near Wicklow town.
Its architects, Delphine and Philip Geoghegan, first converted a 17th-century Quaker meeting house into their home, then turned the adjoining parlour into a design feat of green gorgeousness for guests.
“This was my chance to show people that sustainability is not all about calico and spinach,” says Delphine.
Bar the cows, the Geoghegans have worked scrupulously to maintain most of the original features.
Four elegant wood-and-glass doors that open onto a daffodil-strewn rear garden fill each of the original cattle entrances.
Resisting the temptation to chop the parlour into separate buildings, the Geoghegans have preserved its original partitions, giving a semi-open-plan feel.
Underfloor geothermal heating is topped up by a roaring designer wood-burning stove whose flue stretches through pitched timber rafters. Solar panels provide most of the hot water.
The parlour is minimally furnished with pale wood, allowing splashes of red or lime green to contrast with the original drystone wall, now painted white with lime and organic paints.
Funky designer touches abound, from resplendent shower heads to energy-saving coloured halogen lights that illuminate the porcelain-tiled corridor that links each carefully planned space.
The parlour is a place of peace. I recommend leaving the car behind and chilling there for a weekend. You can take a train to Wicklow town and hire a bike at Wicklow Cycles (wicklowcycles.ie) from €10per day.
Sadly, you can’t take your bike on commuter trains that stop at Wicklow en route to Arklow unless it folds up. But you can take it on some intercity services to Rosslare.
Better to hire one, really, as the rail-bike service is still unpredictable. Or take a bus, and put your bike in the boot if it’s not too full.
In Wicklow town you can stock up on produce from the Garden of Ireland at the Dominican Farm and Ecology Centre (ecocentrewicklow.ie), beside Wicklow’s Historic Gaol.
Its shelves are brimming with organic meat and vegetables, most of which comes from the 30-hectare farm set up and run by the Dominican sisters in 1998.
It’s an eight-kilometre walk or cycle from Ballymurrin House along country lanes to the dunes of Brittas Bay. So between the train, walks, cycling, food and parlour, I can’t think of a better place to welcome spring and start breathing in a bit of life again.
ethicaltraveller.net, twitter.com/catherinemack