LAKE water lapping, islands of water lilies picking up the early morning sun and a fishy population of pike, perch, roach, rudd, tench and eel in, shoals, just waiting to bite.

This Elysium has been part of the south west Laois landscape for generations and was once home to Lord Castletown, part of the Graastown Manor demesne. But what had become a wilderness of, at times, Burma jungle like proportions has now been tamed but only slightly, thank God by a team effort involving community, tourism, local authority and fisheries organisations and blessed by EU funding.

Now, a long, majestic avenue leads down to 10 discrete double jetties from which anglers can wield their rods. A £5 permit can be bought for the day from a nearby house, with only a few provisos, chiefly that the fish must be returned to the water at the end of the day. Tales of the Carlow man who caught 70lb of rudd in six hours fishing on the lake are already becoming part of the legend of Granstuwn.

But it isn't just for anglers. The woodland walk of the nature reserve is alive with rhododendrons and honeysuckle with tall yellow irises down by the lake and evidence that early September will bring a rich blackberry harvest. Lime trees, chestnut, ash and sycamore tower over clusters of dog rose and fern and if you're there at dawn or late evening, when other visitors have left for home, there's the kind of stillness that even guide books can't describe.

The 24 acre lake is just off the main Abbeyleix Rathdowney road beyond the village of Ballacolla and is well sign posted.