| As I'm sure you are wondering, yes I kissed the Blarney Stone. As the story goes, if you kiss the stone, you are given the gift of eloquence. I'm not really sure it worked.... In any case, this was one of the coolest castles. Blarney is just outside of Cork, so after I returned to Cork for the last few days of my trip (to relax and party with my friends in Cork), I spent my last day at Blarney Castle. There were three stories for tourists to walk around in, a dungeon below the castle (more like a cave), a prehistoric cave right near the dungeon, a Druidic settlement near the castle, the castle gardens, and the Blarney mansion (which I didn't go to). Talk about sites to see! Here are two views of the castle as I'm walking toward it through the gardens. 
Some views up close... 
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Below is a guard tower that I went inside. Everyone asks what the hell is the picture to the right - it's looking up from the bottom of the tower! I thought it was a cool view, but the camera just didn't capture it perfectly (though this version is actually better than the developed version).
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To the right is the entrance to the dungeon below the castle. Below and below right are pictures of inside the dungeon. There was a room and a passage that went about 30-50 feet in. It was damp, dark, and only about 3-4 feet high. I only had a small keychain Maglite, but I was determined to see what it was like inside. A nice little adventure.
 Below is the prehistoric cave, called Badgers Cave (unfortunately, one of the few pictures from the trip that didn't come out well). It was very similar to the dungeon inside, but it extended much deeper into the hillside. I went inside, but not very far. I would have liked to search it out, but I didn't have a good flashlight and I think my neck and back would have been very cramped after just a short while. 
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Below is a shot of the center chambers of all three floors. The floors and ceilings no longer exist so one can look up and down through the center of the castle. The two shots to the right are of the castle gardens, taken from the top level of the castle.
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At the top of the castle, there was a nice line of people waiting to kiss the Blarney Stone. Below, the stone is directly across the way, and to the right, I'm being held while I have to lie on my back and reach my head down between the floor and the wall to kiss a stone that's about a foot below the floor level. Ya know, I bet it's all just a ploy to make us tourists look foolish! Well lads and lassies, that be the end of the trip (if you click on "Next", you'll return to the beginning of the trip, at Edinburgh, Scotland). Hope you enjoyed it. I know I did! And someday, I will return... |
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