Constance's poetic admirer, Yeats, would have been dismayed by the disappearance of so much lush countryside as he journeyed northwest to sojourn with his friends and patrons. An alarming proportion of the natural landscape has been sacrificed to ribbon development and urban conurbation.

Turning in along the west side of Drumcliff Bay, which has stunning views of mountain and sea that take your breath away, you come to the beautifully situated Lissadell House and estate, now reduced to a neat 400 acres but once an absurdly large demesne of nearly 30,000 acres.

During the late 19th and early 20th century, under Constance's philanthropic brother Josslyn, Lissadell became a thriving, productive place employing more than 200 people. It had a home farm, saw mills, an hydraulic dam, an oyster farm (still in production today), spacious walled kitchen gardens boasting espaliered fruit trees, a massive range of heated glasshouses, a walled alpine rockery garden down by the sea, and a very successful commercial nursery and bulb farm that did a huge trade in mail order. It also had a school of needlework.

The gardens supplied markets in Ireland and abroad with tomatoes, strawberries, cut flowers, vegetables, cereals, root crops, apples, trees and ornamental shrubs. But it was most famous for its large commercial bulb farm, growing mainly narcissi (daffodil) and anemones, which was able to offer 258 varieties of daffodil for sale in 1915.

Records show that, in the same year, it sold 1,400 alpine and 1,100 herbaceous varieties across Europe and the US. But that situation was not to last and, by 1933, between the world wars when large estates in Ireland and Britain had already lost many of their skilled workers in the trenches, Lissadell was becoming depleted as money started to run out and various tragedies befell the family.

By then, much of the initial land bank of 28,000 acres had been sold cheaply to locals by the philanthropic and socialist Josslyn.

By 1939, the family had no money left to run the place properly and everything stopped. Brambles, briars, ivy, ash, ground elder and other wild things began to colonise the land and the once industrious demesne lay mostly idle for the next 60 years or so. Its sawmills lay idle and Josslyn's worldfamous nursery was wiped out by a plague of eel-worm.

In December 2003, the remaining Gore-Booths sold the 1830s stone house with the overgrown acreage to husband-and-wife barristers Constance Cassidy and Edward Walsh. In the short time since then, the couple have set about the restoration of house and grounds with formidable energy and passion.

Constance Cassidy . . . who moves faster than anyone else I've met and who never seems to take her eye off the ball . . .

has become expert at interior restoration and goes to great lengths to get just the right drawings, paintings, wall and ceiling paints, wallpapers, fabrics and furniture for the house.

Her husband, Edward, has also steeped himself in the place and has an impressive grasp of detail, particularly about the gardens and farm.

The couple have done impressive work in reviving and conserving the house, and getting the best help in rescuing its remaining 400 acres of overgrown woodland and dappled glades, where dark blue native bluebells famously carpet the ground in late spring, followed by swathes of candelabra primula.

The fantastically restored series of gardens is a tribute to the gardeners, particularly the master organic gardener, Claus Laitenberger.

Formerly of the Organic Centre at Rossinver in Co Leitrim, Laitenberger has done trojan work in extricating the bones of the magnificent 2.5 acre walled garden and the glasshouses from the clutches of the wild.

The result is a work of art . . . and of genius . . . brilliantly laid out and planted with fruit and vegetables that will have to be rotated according to best organic practice by fulltime gardeners Michael Feeney, Terry Rainey and Pat Curneen.

In the winter of 2004-'05, under Glenveagh's head gardener Sean O Gaoithin and after a comprehensive report by garden historians Belinda Jupp and Terence Reeves Smith, they set about uncovering and restoring a second, much older, walled rockery garden just five yards in from the sea.

Consultant gardener Jimi Blake is responsible for the interesting new planting, including a hot border and two double borders that are very unusual in that they rise up to the horizon and then dip towards the sea on the other side.

Still extant are the old lists and records of all the plant varieties used in the garden and sold in the nursery, including the daffodil varieties and 1,000 types of herbaceous plants, as well as vegetables. Many of these are now available to the public and a fascinating seed catalogue has been printed.

There are also newlyopened tea rooms selling jams, chutneys and fruit and vegetables produced in the walled garden. Plants and seeds from the gardens will be on sale in the Lissadell Garden Emporium, due to open early in August. Woodland walks and garden tours, along with a programme of courses, are also on offer.

Lissadell is about 15 minutes out of Sligo town. Admission to the estate is free, but there is a charge for guided tours of the gardens and house.

Lissadell House and Gardens, 071-916 3150 www. lissadellhouse. com