Phacelia acts both as a cover crop and as a nectar plant for bees. Owner Tanguy de Toulgoet came to County Laois in 1995 with his wife Isabelle. On a 0.5 ha site they have established an almost self-sufficient lifestyle with a rigorously organic garden. A few years ago the couple established the Dunmore Country School to impart their expertise (his in the garden, and hers in the kitchen).

The Gothic Arch – an exquisite and arresting Gothic Revival folly – was built to a design by Thomas Wright of Durham in about 1760. Thomas Wright was a rare polymath genius: the first to identify the Milky Way, he was also a brilliant architect, decorator and garden designer. The classic 18th century landscape park was created by the turbulent Earl of Belvidere. It includes an elegant bow-ended villa that was built as a fishing lodge for men and the largest sham ruin in Ireland.

Bluebells, moss and ferns spring lavishly in the hazel woodland. Begun in 1971, Ardcarraig is the hardest won garden in the book. The two ha garden is partly granite (with a thin layer of poor soil) and mossy bog. It is the determined hard labour of Lorna MacMahon, armed with a picaxe, that is responsible for a spectacular series of naturalistic looking gardens.

The octagonal Temple of the Winds was designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart in the early 1780s for the 1st Marquess of Londonderry. Although there is an earlier 18th century landscape, it is the oddly inward-looking 20th century garden created by Edith, Lady Londonderry that steals the show. Despite never having visited Italy, Edith created her sub-tropical Italian garden adjacent to a Spanish garden. Her idiosyncratic Dodo Terrace (a tribute to her Ark Club which included members such as Winston Churchill) is full whimsical myth-making and humour. Her philandering husband for example is represented as a cheetah.

A grand semi-circular pergola in the walled garden supports an expanse of rambling roses. Oakfield Park is presided over by a grand Georgian house built as a deanery in the 18th century. The landscape garden has seeping lawns, ancient trees and a man-made lake. The picturesque landscape is however very recent, created about 10 years ago by businessman and broadcaster Sir Gerry Robinson and his wife Heather. Although the garden restoration has adhered to 18th century principles, there are many contemporary and playful elements, including a steam train – the Duchess of Difflin – that tours parts of the estate.

The Anglo-Norman motte was reincarnated as an ornamental mound in the early formal garden. The Scots pines and yew hedging were added in the Victorian era. Sadly the Caste was destroyed by fire during a ball in 1922 and eventually demolished in 1970. Only an Italian tower remains on a landscape now devoid of its principal building.The gardens still retain their original French layout features including the long axes and canal.

Kilfane’s cottage orné – an 18/19th century conceit – offered the ladies of the house and their guests a little place of refuge in the woodland glen. Hurricane Charley in 1986 miraculously brought back to life a dramatic 19th century waterfall feature to the surprise of the owners, potter Nicholas Mosse and his wife Susan. This event led to the uncovering of the overgrown garden’s illustrious past and the recreation of the lost cottage orné. The gardens now have two very different parts, the historic glen and walk and the more contemporary upper garden.

In front of the remains of Queen Anne-style Kilmacurragh House, the meadow is speckled with devil’s bit, scabious and yarrow. Three lots of death duties drove out the Actons – descended from Cromwellian planters who were originally granted the lands. A series of misfortunes have sadly left the house in a state of dereliction. In contrast the richly planted gardens – with many Anglo-Dutch formal elements – have since 2010 been awarded botanic garden status.