Whatever did people do for entertainment before television? Well, around the middle of the 18th century, the Prentice family of Larchill, near Kilcock, used to invite all their friends over to play at naval gun battles on their brand new lake. The eight-acre expanse of water had been dug out from a low-lying field (and what a task that must have been, involving scores of muddy men and beasts) and lined with sticky marl from Carlow, the equivalent of today's rubberised pond liners. To increase the potential of the watery theatre of war the Prentices had two islands built. And, eager to demonstrate their cosmopolitan taste, the family - newlyrich haberdashers from the Coombe - furnished the islands with buildings in a medley of styles. One sprouted a Greek temple (with an exhilarating plunge pool in the middle) and was connected to the land by a causeway and a Chinoiserie bridge. The other had a chunky fortress safeguarded by five turrets and Irish-style battlements with gun ports - and was called Gibraltar. Guests of a more peaceable bent - who weren't interested in taking potshots at the enemy and whipping the lake into a lather - had plenty else to amuse them. A real showpiece was the gothic farmyard, where the animals were splendidly housed in a quadrangle of architect-designed, utopian buildings embellished with pointy-arched doors and windows - instead of mud huts and frightful filth, the normal livestock accommodation of the period.
Also, on the several-hundred-acre estate there was a walled garden with a shell-clad well, and a three-storey shell tower - permitting a most advantageous view of the goings-on at the lake. Many pastoral walks, lined with beech and punctuated by rustic follies, rambled through the gentle, rich farmland. A gazebo with a sheltered seat offered welcome rest and calculated vistas by the lakeside, while a privy around the back took care of life's little urgencies. But something went wrong at Larchill, and the Prentices ran out of money. Perhaps they were trying to keep up with the Wellesleys (the Duke of Wellington's family) at Dangan, eight miles away, where there were elegant follies galore and a hundred acres of artificial lakes - and an island called Gibraltar. In any case, their bubble burst around 1780 and they sold the estate to the Watson family - who continued to construct follies and to improve the demesne.
But by the time Larchill came into the hands of Micheal and Louisa de Las Casas a few years ago, there were only a few traces of the Prentices' and Watsons' efforts. The lake had been filled in - as recently as the 1970s - and many of the follies were tumbled down and smothered by vegetation. The gothic farmyard was the only sound testimony that this had ever been an 18th century "ferme ornee". After a visit by garden historian Paddy Bowe, Micheal and Louisa discovered they were sitting on the "only intact ferme ornee in Europe". The timing could not have been better: the EU-sponsored Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Programme had just been set up, and they received funding from it, as well as from FAS and the National Heritage Council. The existing follies were restored using traditional building methods and - carrying on the spirit of the original ornamental farm - a new complex of gothic animal pens was built to house the rare breeds that enliven the landscape at Larchill. Inside the glowing ochre walls, fat and happy pigs snuffle and snore, angular goats malevolently eyeball visitors and exotic fowl mince and scratch. In a 20-acre field, huge Highland cattle with fiery-red, pre-Raphaelite fringes and over-sized handlebar horns cut romantic, heavy figures. Black sheep and white sheep and sheep in every combination of black-and-white are there too. Lambs, their long tails wiggling like crazy pendulums head-butt into their mothers' udders. The lake has been excavated again - after "four months and thirty grand" - and its still, clear water reflects the restored temple island and a newly-fortified, triumphant Gibraltar, defended now by a pair of swans and their troop of four cygnets.
Head gardener, Rory Canavan - who says the key to abundant wildlife is to plant for invertebrates - has planted up the damp lakeside with an insect-rich mix of arching grasses, oxeye daisies, corn chrysanthemums, clover and other meadow species. In appreciation of his life-sustaining planting, creatures like the swans have arrived out of the blue. Wild duck (including a mother mallard with a train of bumblebee ducklings linked to her wake) and coots have moved into the marshy rushes, along with lizards, newts and other animals. Around the lake, the hedgerows have been rejuvenated by the traditional and near-forgotten craft of hedge-laying, and more hedges are planned, of native species "embellished with forsythia and honeysuckle". In the walled garden - where the previous owners used to keep cattle - miracles have happened, with new herbaceous borders and box-edged herb gardens springing up. And here also is an ancient statue of Nimrod, the legendary hunter - faithful hound by his knee. But, now that wildlife is protected in Larchill, the redundant huntsman - marooned in the middle of a pond - must gaze endlessly at the mannerly cascade of water beneath his feet.
Larchill Arcadian Gardens are open from 12 to 6 p.m. daily until the end of September, and by appointment at other times. Admission: adults £3.25; children £1.50. Telephone: 01-628 4580.