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14 May 2018 / 25 Comments

Blarney Castle in Cork, Ireland - kissing the Blarney stone

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Blarney Castle in Ireland is located just outside the city of Cork. As well as visiting the castle itself and kissing "The Blarney Stone", you can walk around the extensive gardens, which include mysterious stone formations and a poisonous garden. This castle has everything a real castle should have!

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Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle, built in 1446 by Chief Cormac MacCarthy, is located 8 kilometres outside Cork. The first castle was built in wood in the 11th century, but probably burned down. A new stone castle was built in 1210, but this too was destroyed. The third time was the charm, and the castle that now stands on the site was built.

The castle includes a tall tower, a 'princess balcony', caves, winding passageways and a stone that you can ... kiss if you want to. The large surrounding gardens contain impressive collections of different species of trees and ferns, as well as plenty of mysterious places.

Blarney Castle i Cork
Blarney Castle in Cork is a cool castle ruin

Cormac MacCarthy

Cormac MacCarthy was King of Munster. According to legend, he had around 4000 men and helped the King of Scotland Robert de Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Sir Bruce was so pleased and grateful that he gave half of the Coronation Stone, used in Scotland to crown monarchs, to Maccarthy. That stone was built into the top of the tower and is now the famous Blarney Stone. Aren't some fairy tales wonderful and unbeatable when it comes to castles?

Blarney castle balkong
A real 'princess balcony' at Blarney Castle

Kiss the Blarney stones?

The queue to enter the castle and kiss "The Blarney Stone" was about an hour when we were here. Wait an hour to kiss a stone? No, we opted out of that, but why do many people choose to queue first and then (in an awkward backwards leaning position and with help not to fall) kiss an old limestone? If you kiss the Blarney Stone, legend has it that you will receive the gift of eloquence (the gift of speech).

Blarney castle kyssa sten
Queuing up to kiss a stone? No, we didn't do that either ...

Beaver caves and more mystery

In 1645, Queen Elizabeth ordered her forces to take Blarney Castle, from Earl Donough MacCarthy's. They managed to shoot out the tower walls with cannons, and they stormed the castle, but everyone was gone? Surely a real castle has underground caves! There are supposedly three exits from the castle, one to the lake, one to Cork and one to Kerry, called the beaver caves.

There was no one to capture at this point and the Maccathy's clan were given back their castle. In 1690, Earl Donough MacCarthy's was finally captured and the English King William III was able to seize the castle and lands. The castle was bought by Cork Governor Sir James St John Jefferyes in the early 18th century. They also built a beautiful mansion on the huge grounds of the castle. The mansion burned down in 1874, but has been rebuilt as Blarney House.

Blarney castle gångar
Crawl into these tunnels? Well, we won't ...

The Blarney House

There is not only a castle but also a "house" (which may actually look even more like a castle than the actual castle). The owner of this whole place lives here! The house is apparently open for viewing sometimes in the summer, but not now.

However, the owner seemed to be at home, as the car was parked outside his 'little house'. Around the manor house, plants and trees from all corners of the world have been collected for hundreds of years, such as special cedar trees, maples, unusual beech trees and rose beds galore. Everything a castle area should have!

Blarney house
Blarney house - the owner is at home and has parked the car outside his "lair".

The Rock Close - among druids and witches

The area known as 'The Rock Close' is very special. This place is filled with mysterious rock formations and, according to legend, once belonged to druids, i.e. learned people among ancient Celtic peoples. Here you pass the 'witch's stone' and the 'witch's kitchen'. Fortunately, the witch doesn't wake up until midnight (and the park closes several hours before that).

Witch Stone
Peter "hiding" from the witch ...
Witch kitchen
Visiting the witch's kitchen
Druids
It seems to be good inside the cave ...

You can also go down the 'Wish Staircase'. If you walk down this staircase backwards, while closing your eyes, all your wishes will be granted. As you can see from the picture, we're not that superstitious... We just have to try to fulfil our wishes in other ways!

WIFI.se
Whishing steps
Here you can wish for things ...

Poison Garden

Another mysterious place at Blarney Castle is the 'poison garden', where there is a large collection of poisonous plants from around the world. It feels pretty creepy in a cool way, but we would never be here at night. This castle has just about everything from kings to witches.

If you want to read more about the castle or perhaps make a visit yourself, you can find practical information about opening hours and admission prices on the castle's website. website.

Poison leak
The poison tree is full of poisonous plants

Where did our journey continue?

Our trip in Ireland is coming to an end, but we are a bit behind in reporting so we will keep writing about Ireland for a while longer! After the visit to Blarney Castle we were keen to visit Cork, which is supposed to be a nice city, but due to time constraints we had to start moving up towards Dublin. On the way we found a historically important fort, a ghostly cemetery, a magnificent waterfall and a campsite close to the city...

Cashel
On the way to the next interesting place ...
All our top tips about Ireland. Click on the image!

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14 May 2018 6:00
Ireland
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23 Comments

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  1. Deciree Granberg says:

    It looked like a cool place to visit. But I would not crawl into the tunnels!:) Hugs

    14 May 2018 - 6:43

    Reply

  2. Liniz Travel says:

    Wow so beautiful! Getting more and more keen on travelling around on the
    Åland. Have a nice week hugs

    14 May 2018 - 8:34

    Reply

  3. Henny says:

    Interesting and beautiful places you found during your tour in Ireland. Who doesn't want to make a similar trip?
    Witches and wizards were probably "real" in people's minds only a couple of centuries ago, now it's fun for us tourists. We found a small town in Germany called Thale where the tourism was based on the fact that it was the town of witches.

    14 May 2018 - 8:42

    Reply

  4. Inga Magnusson says:

    Nice trip to Ireland!

    14 May 2018 - 10:28

    Reply

  5. Steve says:

    I wouldn't queue to kiss a stone either. Preferably because I think I'm already eloquent enough.

    14 May 2018 - 14:06

    Reply

  6. Britt-Marie Lundgren says:

    How many castles and fortresses are there in Ireland? You've managed to pinpoint quite a few of them.
    And you don't have to queue to kiss a stone and become more eloquent. I think you have a great way of expressing yourself without that gift!

    14 May 2018 - 18:10

    Reply

  7. Lena - gott för själen says:

    How many cool castles can there be in such a small area, you (I) wonder?

    Hug Lena

    14 May 2018 - 18:47

    Reply

  8. Matts Torebring says:

    That's awesome!

    14 May 2018 - 20:17

    Reply

  9. Rolle o Carina says:

    What a beautiful island you will experience!

    Take care.....

    14 May 2018 - 20:58

    Reply

  10. TravelAnna says:

    What a cool place! I love the combination of beautiful surroundings and exciting, slightly "supernatural" history. However, I would also have refrained from crawling into the aisles and kissing the stone. 😉

    Will now read about your trip! Ireland is definitely on my bucket list.

    14 May 2018 - 22:19

    Reply

  11. BP says:

    The header picture is an absolute highlight:-) Like you, I wouldn't have queued up to kiss a stone either. Wasted time as well.
    To have a garden with poisonous plants - spooky. Maybe you should have kissed that rock after all;-)
    Looking forward to the rest of your adventure:-)

    14 May 2018 - 23:28

    Reply

  12. Elisabeth says:

    Very exciting to watch!

    16 May 2018 - 21:23

    Reply

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