We started out on a very bleak Saturday morning to go to Blarney Castle - as tourist it is my sworn duty to do certain things and kissing the Blarney Stone was one of those "must dos".
It was a fair drive down to Cork, so we asked Tom (our friend on the dashboard) for the fastest route.
We are finding that being up and around early is a definite advantage when we have some distance to drive, as we still manage to beat the crowds.
The castles in Ireland are not on the same scale as the English ones, and unfortunately the restoration works spoils the photo opportunities, but we still had a great time there.
I did kiss the blarney stone - there are photos to prove it, but you have to wait until we get home to see them as 1. Ray didn't come with me and 2. I left the camera with him. Of course I bought the professional photos as proof!
For readers who know my Dad, you can guess what he said when i told him I had kissed the Blarney Stone - hint -it was not particularly complimentary.
The grounds of Blarney Castle are magnificent. We wandered around for quite some time. We were there much longer than we had anticipated.
There's a faerie grove and a witch's kitchen. Below is the witch's stone..... Can you see the witch?
These are the wishing steps. If you can walk up and back down with your eyes closed, all the time thinking only of your wish the it will come true within a year............ I don't think they are in much danger of being sued by people who's wish wasn't granted!!
While I was climbing up to the Blarney stone - a rather lengthy process and one, I might add that had much hairier stairs than the Caernarfon Castle tower, Ray was checking out he Poison Garden. I had no idea that so many of the plants we are familiar with are poisonous - for example the leaves of the rhubarb plant are poisonous. There were many others, but we thought that some of you might appreciate the fact that the tobacco plant is poisonous!! Imagine that!!
We took a different route home from Blarney and finally saw some of the type of scenery we were hoping for. Unfortunately it was raining very heavily at some of the best viewpoints and with my basic photographic skills and basic camera it would have been pointless to try for the photos.
Our final stop for the day was in Shillaleagh - where we found a Shillaleagh shop.
The shop was closed, but we got a picture through the window!
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