Ethical traveller Catherine Mackdidn't think she was a tour-group kind of person. A rail journey from London to the west changed that
I HAVE TAKEN the 9am train from London Euston home to Dublin about eight times over the past year. A self-confessed carbon-footprint bore, I like to practise what I preach.
Nowadays, however, I choose rail as much for mental as for environmental reasons. Airports test my sanity. If I can avoid them I will. No more removing belts or shoes, no more fiddling with liquids, no more two-hour check-ins or luggage restrictions.
Many say life's too short to spend a day travelling to Ireland, but give me an extra few hours on a train, reading my book or doing some work, than going mad in a London airport any day.
So I was just a little smug about my secret 9am hassle-free escape from London. But I knew it wouldn't be long before the secret was out. Railtours Ireland, which has been bringing visitors around Ireland's leading tourist attractions for 10 years by train and coach, was quick to spot this gaping green hole in the travel market - and crossed the water.
Railtours Ireland promotes its tours to those who want to "do a chunk of Ireland in a few days". I recently joined one of its shorter journeys, from London to the west of Ireland. I did so with a little trepidation, as I never saw myself as a tour-group type. My hair isn't quite silver yet, I don't own a transparent plastic poncho and I don't like small talk. Too grumpy for groups, I thought. But all preconceptions were shattered when I arrived at Euston station and the smiling host, in a bright-yellow Railtours Ireland raincoat, led me to the Virgin train to Holyhead. There were no group bonding exercises, and we all just settled into our journey like the adult individuals that we are.
The train trip was as smooth as ever, with an hour or so to kill at Holyhead ferry terminal. No longer the shed it used to be, it still has a long way to go before it can compete with airport retail outlets. But you can now get a decent coffee at least.
Railtours Ireland has linked up with Stena Line, which took us on its impressively fast ferry to Dún Laoghaire.
The first time I really became aware that I was travelling with a group was when we were led, by our yellowcoats, to the Dart station. People politely compared notes on the surprisingly smooth crossing, and I smiled proudly as my fellow travellers gasped in awe at Dublin Bay en route to the city. "I had no idea Dublin was on the sea," one of them said.
You get your money's worth with Railtours Ireland, as it has you out of your bed - in the three-star Hotel Isaacs, within easy reach of Connolly station and on the Luas line to get to Heuston station for the next leg of our journey - at the crack of dawn.
We took the 7am train to Limerick, where our yellowcoats led us on to an equally yellow bus. As our guide tested his microphone with a tap tap, I felt the group-tour snob within start to twitch.
Within seconds his amusing and informative take on Limerick's cultural heritage, Georgian architecture and political history - not just the Angela's Ashes spiel I had expected - had me sitting up in my seat, almost raising my hand to ask more questions.
Moving on to Bunratty Castle, one of those places I had always thought was "just for tourists", my only criticism was that we didn't have enough time there to take it all in. This is one of the most stylish restorations of a medieval castle I have seen in a long time.
Our tour guide missed a career on the stage, running around the great soldiers' hall, entertaining us with stories of dungeons and damsels. The grounds of the castle house a selection of restored village homesteads and shops, with women baking scones in one, a schoolteacher giving Irish lessons in another and a weaver selling woollens next door.
Then to Doolin for lunch at Gus O'Connor's Pub. I downed my seafood chowder in one, then left the group listening to the excellent fiddlers to catch some of the midday sun on Doolin beach. The waves seem to pound in from every direction here, and this rocky limestone cove is a great spot to sit and breathe in Co Clare's under-rated splendour.
Our next stop was the Cliffs of Moher. The sun was still being kind to us as we joined the crowds to see these superb natural sculptures. The photograph on the Railtours Ireland website is out of date, however, as kamikaze visitors are no longer able to sprawl out at the cliff's edge, due to constant erosion and inevitable tragedies (which I write about in more detail in my column, on the back page).
There is now a barrier made of local Liscannor stone slabs, which follows the length of the new cliff pathway, all part of the recently opened Cliffs of Moher visitor centre, a subterranean coup of eco-friendly architecture, built as part of the long-term plan to preserve this precious site for future generations.
It is hard to take your eyes away from the far-off horizon here, so I was relieved that we were taking the coast road back to Galway. The limestone Burren, one of Ireland's most celebrated national parks, sprawls along the coastline like some sort of giant grey mammal quietly basking in the coastal breeze. We stopped to take a brief stroll across this lunar-like landscape, with its panoply of rare wild flowers growing just out of reach of the Atlantic spray.
I felt a little sad to be entering the relative metropolis of Galway, wanting to keep my memories of the west well and truly wild.
As I sat contemplating my journey on the train back to Dublin, I realised that the beauty of these group tours lies not in "doing" Ireland but in quenching your thirst. Like tasters on a gourmet menu, it made us want to revisit and take more time in the places that touched our hearts.
Back in Dublin I had just one more thing to do: have a nightcap with my fellow travellers and celebrate our excursion. I may still like my personal space, but, raising a glass to new friends, I was, for now, a well-and-truly-converted groupie.
•Hotel Isaacs, Store Street, Dublin 1, 01-8134700, www.isaacs.ie; Bunratty Castle & Folk Park, Bunratty, Co Clare, 061-711200, www.shannon heritage.com; Gus O'Connor's Pub, Fisher Street, Doolin, Co Clare, 065-7074168, www. doolin-tourism.com; Cliffs of Moher New Visitor Experience, Co Clare, 065-7086141, www.cliffsofmoher.ie
Catherine Mack travelled as a guest of Railtours Ireland (01-8560045, www.rail toursireland.com). Trips from London start at €289, including accommodation.