CO WICKLW, the Garden of Ireland, is a good place in which to take tea. Hunter's Hotel, just outside Rathnew, is of course famous for its Sunday afternoon teas on the lawns, and this anachronistic, nostalgic little coaching inn has just that right measure of Edwardian prudence to help convince us that we have wandered into a Merchant/Ivory production, where striped blazers and willowy dresses are the order of the day.
Squashy, spongy cakes and petite sandwiches, and good tea, complete the picture of timelessness, just right for Sunday afternoon day dreaming.
On the southern side of the village, late on Sunday afternoons, droves of well dressed families will be disgorging from Tinakilly House, after Sunday lunch and Bill and Bee Power's hotel is, once again, a nostalgic place, its Victorian grandeur tempered by a devout sense of service.
It is, again, a good place to take tea, if you are staying here, precisely because that sense of service and correctness turns the simple act into an event. But anyone with a mind to getting out of the swarm of the capital for a day or so should try to ensure a stay here for a Saturday night.
Why? Well, not just because John Moloney's food is so good but especially because they make a great to do about Sunday morning breakfast in bed, a jamboree of good things which they do stylishly and swishly.
And as you tour aimlessly around and about the county, your mind fixed on taking tea, then don't neglect to call in on two of the most distinguished addresses you can find. We have already praised the dynamic cooking of Joanna Hill in Avoca Handweavers, in Kilmacanogue, on these pages and, while Avoca is a must stop for lunch, it is also a must stop for tea and a good, not too sweet Wellington slice as you browse the stylish gansies and cast an eye over the contents of the new food hall.
But if it is fine tea we want, then we must head to Greystones and to Clive and Kathleen McCabe's gratht lee tea and coffee shop on the main street of the village. Mr McCabe's expertise when it comes to leaves and beans is unrivalled and the fact that such respect is shown here to brewing and to boiling makes it an unbeatable place in which to take tea. The only problem, of course, is deciding what to drink. Afternoons call for Earl Grey, we reckon, and a dainty little bun.
There is another fine reason to head out into the country to enjoy tea in Wicklow, however, though this reason is not such a pleasant one. The powers that be in Co Wicklow have suggested one of the proposed extensions to the N11 as the coastal route, which would run to within 300 metres of Hunter's Hotel and within 250 metres of Tinakilly House. So the peace and quiet we can enjoy in both of these splendid houses would be shattered and a quiet afternoon tea would be accompanied by car and lorry drone. We are sure the powers that be will realise the damage which choosing the coastal route would do to two of the jewels of Wicklow tourism and will find a better, less disruptive, place to build their dual carriageway. Save Wicklow for afternoon tea!