3/11 part 2 - Blarney!

On to the town (and castle) of Blarney! As we rode, Brendan once again kept us entertained with stories of his life. When he was 14 he went to boarding school but quit when he was 16 because, since it was a religious school, they didn't have a football team. They only spoke Galic (aka Irish) at the school, which doesn't seem to be unusual here. He used to speak it perfectly and it served him well as a policeman. Apparently if a suspect starts speaking Galic when he's arrested, the arraignment has to be in Galic. Brendon arrested a guy who spoke Galic and when the arraignment time came he smirked at Brendon, thinking he would get off. Brendan casually gave his whole statement in Galic and the scoundrel went to jail. 


The harp is the symbol of Ireland as a reference to their love of music. Brendan says that the Guinness harp faces the opposite direction from the official harp, to avoid conflict. 
And blue is Ireland's official color (not green). But the trip-color flag, which was designed by Thomas Francis Meahger (who we learned about in Waterford walking tour) has the colors of green for national Catholic people, orange for Protestants, and white for peace between them. 
In the town of Blarney we headed straight towards the castle. It sits up on a hill, as medieval castles should.

The name "blarney" goes back to Queen Elizabeth I, who could never get a straight answer, money or loyalty oaths from Cormac MacCarthy. He never refused outright but his clever word-smithing eventually caused her to declare his answers were “nothing but Blarney.”

Now, up to the top. This version of the castle was built in 1446 so the stairs are steep and the doors are narrow. The famous Blarney Stone is at the top, so we climbed the narrow, tightly twisting stairs up to the second, third, and finally to the highest level. And the view from the top is great, stretching across the castle lands, all the way to the village and beyond. All those lovey shades of green.

But that's not what we were here for - we were here for the Blarney Stone! The Blarney Stone is a block of carboniferous limestone, which makes it different that any other rock in the rest of the castle. It was reportedly set in the tower when it was built back in 1446 and while there are legends and fables about it, there's no clear reason why. Is it possible that even back then they knew the value of it as an attraction? 

To kiss the thing you have to lie flat on your back, right at the edge of the walkway with your head hanging in a gap between the walkway edge and the castle wall. And stretch your neck way back until your head disappears. Then scoot forward and kiss. Nowadays they have some metal bars to avoid disasters and a guy to hold on to you. Randy was game - he did the contortion thing and kissed the stone! 

I however, blew it a kiss from where I was standing and moved on. Standing on the walkway here and looking across, you can see all three stories.

This is a view I could love, but obviously we needed to get back down. So we headed down a second set of narrow, steep stairs.

The walls are seriously thick. That's standard for a well-built castle - the walls are a major part of the defense.

Another standard defense mechanism is the murder hole. This hole in the floor was strategically placed to be a launch area for anything you wanted to drop on intruders - rocks, fire, hot oil.

It's also probably also a defensive strategy that the staircases are narrow and steep. Uneven steps were a way to trip up invaders. People who lived here knew where the tricky steps were but a stranger rushing upstairs would have likely stumbled. Short, narrow doorways would have helped, too. There was no way to get a group of people through this, they would have had to enter one at a time.

We went down done a level, and pausing to admire the massive structure which is made visible by the lack of ceiling and floors.

One each level there were a few regular rooms - mostly bedrooms - and a one small room labeled as the Garderobe. That's a medieval French word for bathroom. A simple wooden seat would have been set along the wall with either a bucket or a channel under the cut-out seats. Effective, but I'm glad we have other options. 

The lack of floors makes it difficult to visualize what the interior would have looked like when it was in use. There is a lovely old fireplace floating up on the wall, which would have been on the second or third level. 

When we reached the ground level Randy and I walked a few yards away to the caves. This is called the Badger cave and Randy explored a short way down the passage before we decided not to go spelunking today. 

Soon the rest of our group headed to town for lunch and perhaps some shopping at Blarney Woolen Mills. I couldn't tear myself away so I turned in the other direction and started walking around the castle. The lookout tower is positioned near the front. It's designed very simply but effectively and seems to be in pretty good shape. 

I peeked inside. The floors and ceiling are long gone; there are just the inset holes where the steps would have been attached and squares of light from the empty window. 

There is a lovely tower on the east side that used to be a home. What a wonderful place to live (if it had modern fixtures)!

Around the side are the gardens. It isn't summer yet - it's barely spring - but the garden is doing it's best to be colorful and inviting.

There is a lushness here that I find very attractive.

Eventually I knew I had to catch up to the others. I didn't want to get lost again like I did in Nassau. So I high-tailed it across the field and into town where I found Randy. He had just finished lunch but he went back with me to buy me lunch.  I couldn't help looking at these lovely meringues...

but I followed Randy's recommendation and got the "daily special" of a fresh-baked scone with butter and jam and hot tea. It was a great lunch - just perfect.

Brendan drove us all to Killarney where we will spend 2 nights. First thing to do, of course, is have a few Guinnesses. So we found a pub and did just that.

Good pubs tend to look alike. Same bottles on the wall, same drinks on tap, same sports on TV. Good pub.

We had dinner at the hotel where I had corned beef and cabbage and Randy had the oven-baked fresh salmon. Later we talked about going out to hear Irish music but the weather was still cold and wet, so we went to the hotel bar where we were told yes, there will be Irish music. We ordered our drinks and soon the musician arrived. He was very talented with voice and guitar but he sang old American songs! When he asked for requests, our group would call out for any Irish song. He did sing Molly Malone and a couple more, but mostly he stuck to American music. So we sang along to Daydream Believer and Country Roads and had another pint.