Blarney Castle

On the morning of Saturday June 19th we headed out of Cork towards Blarney Castle, about five miles North West of the city.

We arrived very early that morning and the place thankfully wasn't packed. Here's Gregg paying at the gate. Luckily I remembered to bring my school ID so that rang up quite the savings with all the tourist attractions.

The castle is a long climb up a very narrow spiral stairway. There were a few rooms off to the side, this is a partial view of one.

Here's Gregg making his way up the narrow stairway, of course, with coffee in hand.

Once we finally made it to the top, I took this shot going straight down the side. Blarney Castle was once much larger than this. Just one square tower is all that remains of it and has a rising of 82 feet.

The views from the top were breathtaking.

Gregg got a picture of me while we waited in line to kiss the stone.

The lines weren't too bad, and they moved quite quickly. Plus there was a lot to see from up this high.

There's my honey, waiting patiently.

Finally I got to kiss the stone. I didn't make a good decision of outfits for the day, but the attendant was prepared with a blanket.

Gregg even bent over backwards and hung upside down in a parapet, all in hopes of increased loquaciousness.

This myth (about the gift of gab one receives from kissing the Blarney Stone) is actually quite new. It is believed to have been Queen Elizabeth I who created it in the 16th Century, in a fit of exasperation at the ability of then-Lord Blarney to prattle on at great length without actually ever agreeing to what she wanted. Kissing the stone, however, is less than a century old. Nobody knows quite why it started, but around Cork County they have thousands of tales, some involving witches and others the crusaders, but don't believe them. It's all a bunch of blarney.

From the top we could see Blarney house. Magnificent!

There was another line going down from the castle, because it was in the same sort of stairwell, it moved slowly too. With just 6 or so stairs left to go on the way down, I slipped on a wet stone and slid all the way down. I had some really beautiful bruises to show for it, but I didn't mind because I had my camera in hand with an awfully expensive lens at the time. That camera is like a kid to me, I'll give life and limb to shield it from harm.

The tourists were so nice, they even took a picture of us together, too bad the sun was in our face.

The ground surrounding Blarney Castle were beautiful. Some other Americans took our picture beside this tree.

Blarney house is gorgeous. I had to crop out a modern car that was parked nearby, way to ruin the scenery.

I rarely give up my camera because I know Gregg will take photos of me, and I hate being photographed. I almost never like how I look, this one is OK though. Who's paying attention to me anyway? Look at that house!

Here's Gregg pointing out the holes in the castle where waste (poo and such) exited the building through slots. Lovely. Good thing we got over that intestinal discomfort from earlier in the trip already.

We picked ourselves up a river rock on the way back to the car. I needed a little memento.

This was the point at which I realized that I forgot to put on mascara that morning. Ah, the sleepy look. But we had a great time anyway.

Then we hit the road again, heading towards Ross Castle, The Ring of Kerry, and our hotel for the evening. We had to stop a couple times for pints in celebration of Gregg's 33rd birthday!