New Guide to Eco Travel in Ireland
Slow Green Travel Best Way to See Emerald Isle Says ecoescape Book
Jun 5, 2008
Green Guide, the publishers of eco travel and other guidebooks, have brought out the ecoescape: Ireland guide, written by journalist Catherine Mack. Described as a "handbook to responsible escapism", it describes the author's pick of her top 50 ecoescapes in Ireland, including Northern Ireland.
An ecoescape needn't be dull and 'worthy', and it can be extremely indulgent, as this guide to Irish eco travel proves. Take, as one example, Wineport Lodge at Glasson in County Westmeath, three miles north of Athlone. A luxury boutique hotel in the Irish Midlands? Yes, and one with a roof terrace hot tub and a gourmet restaurant too. They call themselves Ireland's first wine hotel, and each of the 29 rooms is named after a different wine or spirit, with all of them having views of Lough Ree. The lodge also has an enlightened policy on just about every aspect of running the hotel, but they don't shout about it. It's a shame not every business is run the same way, then there wouldn't be a need to pick out the few that care about their environment and the impact of travel.
The ecoescape: Ireland guide is about more than just places to stay. It covers eco travel in all its aspects, including whale watching in west Cork, cycle trails, places to eat, an aquarium, footpaths, the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, and places like the Cultivate Living and Learning Centre in Dublin. Even the author admits she's wary of places with names like Cultivate, as if you had to go somewhere special to learn how to learn and how to live. But she's won over by this "wonderful place in the middle of Dublin", and her ability to be sceptical of places is one of the book's strong points. The places she visits have to prove to her that they're giving more than just lip-service to the notion of eco travel and being green.
In return, the author gives more than just lip-service to her write-ups of the places she visits. The main choices receive two or three full pages in the book, and they are all enjoyably readable. The writer seems to treat each entry as a piece of journalism, to inform and entertain, and doesn't provide the usual kind of superficial guidebook write-up.
"Don't get Nic Slocum onto the subject of jet skis," she writes, as the opening to her description of Whale Watch West Cork. "He will see red. Hard for a man who lives for all that is green." Catherine Mack is no mean photographer too, and provides most of the images used in the book, like the one on the cover of a bicycle parked with Ben Bulben in the distance.
The Kingfisher Cycle Trail, Ireland's first long-distance cycle trail, gets an enthusiastic thumbs-up, as does Exploris, Northern Ireland's aquarium in Portaferry, County Down. Eco travel is about what you're doing, not whether you're big or small. As well as comprehensive practical information, all of the entries let you know how to enjoy them by making as little travel impact as possible yourself: take the bus, take the ferry or the train, travel by bicycle if you can. Again the author's honest and admits she wasn't always able to practice what she preaches, and nor can we always be expected to either. But if we try, and think about the places we visit, we can do our bit for eco travel.
Practical Information
ecoescape: Ireland is published by Green Guides at £8.99 in the UK and €11.69 in Ireland. For further information check out the ecoescape website and the Green Guide website.
