Barb & John's Hols: European Trip Day 5 Blarney

Kissing the Blarney Stone

Barb was keen to visit Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone because that's the first thing people as when you say you've been to Ireland. "Did you kiss the Blarney stone?" Yessiree!

On our way to Blarney from Tipperary, we stopped in to see Cahir Castle. It looked very impressive from the outside with a moat and high walls. We were bang on opening time when we arrived at 0900. After purchasing our tickets a man holding a paint brush guided us over the door frame he was painting.

"Are we the first here?" asked John

"Well I wasn't expecting you till tomorrow" the man shot back.

With that we proceeded through the portcullis and went to a corner tower that had steps leading down to a dungeon. We went downwards, but then somehow ended up going upwards to the top of the tower. Great views over a wier and Cahir township.

Down to the dungeons, but ending
up at the top of the tower

We enjoyed looking around the castle especially as it wasn't yet very busy. In the castle gift shop we decided against buying Austen a bow and arrow set with a quiver of arrows, axe and sword. We could just imagine him taking out his sister's eye with that. John settled on a book on Irish castles. He may regret that....it'll only give Barb ideas of more castles to see.

We went across the road to a very nice cafe afterwoods. It had very fine castle views and excellent cake. Winning! Then we walked around the town just because it looked so quaint and pretty.

We drove on to Blarney Castle arriving at peak hour along with several tourist coaches. We were advised that the queue to kiss the Blarney Stone was an hour long. They were wrong. It was longer than that.

We lined up anyway as Barb would not be deterred from her quest. In truth it wasn't too bad, as there were things to see as you moved slowly in a line through the castle ever upwards. We were amused by the "murder holes" and by the strange castle toilets aka garderobes.

Barb was very taken with the hanging baskets

When we finally reached the top the views over the extensive gardens were amazing! Barb quickly spotted Blarney House....a very majestic residence and decided we must go there too.

Kissing the Blarney stone is no mean feat. You have to lie on your back and then push yourself out over about 100 ft drop so you can reach the stone. This feels extremely perilous even though they have a man stationed there to hang onto you so you don't fall. Barb felt extremely proud of herself for conquering fear. She fully earned her certificate and photo of the achievement.

We went to what used to be the stables, now converted to gift shop and cafe for lunch. It's thirsty work queueing for so long!

Then we went in search of the house we'd seen. John was distracted along the way by the Poison garden. Should Barb be worried that he was so carefully studying varoius poison plants? Or has she read too many Agatha Christie novels?

When we got to the house it had just closed for the day. Bummer! Still it was lovely to view from the outside.

Blarney House was closed with a door
bell saying "do not ring this bell."

We drove off in search of our B&B which is at a farmhouse outside of Cork. It was pretty tricky (nigh on impossible - they didn't actually give address) to find, but we made it. Jan and Nick turned up some time later and we drove in one car into Kinsale for dinner. It was very busy in the town for a Thursday night and the streets are very narrow and a lot of them one way.

We were directed to a pub and were lucky enough to get the last table available. The counter meal was quite good and the boys indulged in some more guinness so everyone was happy. After the very big meal we tried to walk off our full tummies with a walk down to the harbour. It's been very windy all day, but this harbour provides good protection for the boats and they weren't bouncing around on their moorings too much.