Day 36 - August 16, 2022 - Cork - Blarney Castle

 We were up early and had breakfast at 7:00 AM.  We were to board our coach for a trip to Blarney Castle at 8:30.  Breakfast was good, as I mentioned yesterday, we like the Clayton Hotel.  Below is a photo of the open atrium.

On board we started our short, 20 minute trip to the castle.

Or route took us by the Murphy Stout brewery, which is now owned by Heineken who purchased it to try and compete with Guinness.  So far it hasn't been too successful.  Murphy stout is a good beer, but nothing has the mouth feel of a draft Guinness.

We arrived at the ticket office at the castle grounds just before it opened at 9:00 AM and we were the first group to arrive.  There was a line of about 30 individuals already in a que, but the tour groups have a separate window.  

My first view of the castle.

I knew little about the castle itself, so as usual I deferred to Wikipedia:

The castle originally dates from before 1200, when a timber house was believed to have been built on the site, although no evidence remains of this. Around 1210 this was replaced by a stone fortification. It was destroyed in 1446 but subsequently rebuilt by Cormac Láidir MacCarthy, Lord of Muscry, who also built castles at Kilcrea and Carrignamuck.

The castle was besieged during the Irish Confederate Wars and was seized in 1646 by Parliamentarian forces under Lord Broghill. However, after the Restoration, the castle was restored to Donough MacCarty, who was made 1st Earl of Clancarty.

During the Williamite War in Ireland in the 1690s, the 4th Earl of Clancarty (also named Donough MacCarty) was captured, and his lands (including Blarney Castle) were confiscated by the Williamites.

The castle was sold and changed hands several times — Sir Richard Pyne, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, owned it briefly — before being purchased in the early 18th century by Sir James St John Jefferyes, governor of Cork City.

The trip to reach the Blarney Stone is an adventure in itself.  It is necessary to climb 127 narrow steps, in a spiral stairway.  The stairway becomes narrower as it ascends and randomly the spacing of the steps change.  This all to afford a better position for the defenders who would have been above the attackers.

The Blarney Stone is a block of Carboniferous limestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle.  According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of the gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery). The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446.  The word blarney has come to mean "clever, flattering, or coaxing talk". Irish politician John O'Connor Power defined it this way: "Blarney is something more than mere flattery. It is flattery sweetened by humor and flavored by wit. Those who mix with Irish folk have many examples of it in their everyday experience."

We can attest to this from our experiences, almost daily while interacting with the Irish folks, we see their wit expressed without their even trying.

We made it to the top of the tower!

Kay getting ready to kiss the stone.

    

She did it!

There are several legends about about the Blarney Stone.  Probably the best bet on accuracy would be the account about Queen Elizabeth I and McCarthy wins out. Queen Elizabeth I wanted McCarthy to surrender the Blarney Castle over to her as a show of loyalty, so she ordered the Earl of Leicester to seize Blarney Castle from McCarthy. Since McCarthy didn’t want to give it up, he used his wit to keep the queen and Earl distracted, coming up with excuses and holding banquets that kept delaying the negotiations. It’s debatable whether McCarthy enlisted magic on his side or not, but in the end, the castle was never taken, and the whole affair got so absurd that it became a joke at court. “Blarney” officially made its entry into the Irish language after the Queen used the word “blarney” to describe the Earl’s pointless progress reports and McCarthy’s excuses.

But, this might all just be blarney...

After kissing the stone, we strolled along some of the many paths on the castle grounds 1500 acres.

A kind Irish couple offered to take this photo of the four of us under this incredible western cedar, a tree not native to Ireland.  Surprisingly, it is only a little over 100 years old.

A walk in the Fern Forrest.

Carl has looked everywhere for a Leprechaun, and he thought he found one.

The above was an interesting story about this cave.

A final photo of the castle from another angle.

We left the castle for a trip to lunch at a local home located in Cobh, a port city.

This is an old castle, which was privately purchased and restored to a modern home at a cost of $10 million dollars.  This has become a common trend in Ireland as well as the UK.

We arrived at our hosts home, Michael and Geraldine.

This was a larger than normal group for home hosted meals, in addition to the four of us, we had Alex and Margaret from Virginia and John and Elizabeth who are also from Georgia.  The meal was excellent, although Michael was not able to join us.  We did visit for a while.  He had a career in the Irish Navy and now is a historian who travels the world to give talks.   He also does guided tours himself.

After the wonderful meal of salad, shepherds pie and dessert of cherry-rhubarb pie with ice-cream, Geraldine talked to us about the national sport of hurling (Camogie for women).  The only difference between the two sports is the playing time of the game.  Geraldine competed in Camogie on a regional level with two appearances in the National tournament.  It was fascinating, and I have to watch a match on YouTube soon.

A view of Cobh Cathedral, built in 1919.

After returning to the hotel, we took a walk to the City Market.  We were disappointed, it turned out it was just a food market.  We were expecting a market similar to what we have seen in other European cities, which contained everything.

Later we again wandered out, seeking food.  We decided on The Oliver Plunket, a popular pub restaurant, where the girls had a roasted tomato soup with dark Irish soda bread.  Carl had wings and I had a Smash burger with fries.  We both had Guinness again.

We leave tomorrow to travel to Wexford for two nights and more adventure.