A wish at Blarney…but no kiss!

Thursday 12^th September

Today’s pedometer reading 9.13k’s

This morning we drove 90 k’s from Killarney to Cork via Blarney.

We arrived in Blarney at about 10:30am and didn’t leave until about 3:30pm but didn’t  kiss the Blarney Stone! The Castle was built nearly six hundred years ago is a 10 minute walk from the entrance along the banks of the River Martin. When we arrived at the Castle there was a huge queue with a 45 minute wait to climb the steps of the castle to the stone. The way it works is If you kiss the Blarney stone you will have the gift of eloquence bestowed upon you…I thought you got to make a wish for something.   We decided to explore the castle grounds instead and think we made a very good choice.

Blarney Castle

I was keen to find the Wishing Steps so we followed a path through the Watergarden…no that is not a Leprechaun!

It’s me!

When you come to an archway of limestone rocks you step through and find yourself on the Wishing Steps. The story goes that if you can walk down and back up these steps with your eyes closed - some demand that this be done walking backwards - and without stopping for one moment to think of anything other than a wish, then that wish will come true within a year.

I did it and I made a very special wish but I'm not telling what it was because if I do it might not come true!

The woodland walk was beautiful…

The Ice House

The Horses Graveyard where several family 
riding and work horses are buried.

In 1704 the mayor of Cork, Sir James St John Jefferyes, purchased the estate and built a new house attached to the original castle because they found life in the castle too uncomfortable! This was destroyed in a fire and was rebuilt in 1846 in the Scots Baronial style…it’s beautiful…

Blarney House

…we then explored further, 
here are some of the things we found…

mini cyclamens

Blarney is also well known for its woolen mills. Now Ireland’s largest gift store, Blarney Woollen Mills stocks quality Irish gifts from Waterford Crystal, Belleek China and Aran Sweaters to Celtic Jewellery; and Irish linen and lace. It’s the perfect one stop shop for all things Irish! We enjoyed lunch in the café & decided to have a look around…we haven’t done a lot of shopping and so we split up for half an hour and enjoyed browsing on our own. When we met up again Andrew took me to see a Tweed hat and a waterproof jacket that he liked. I loved them & he ended up buying both!

It’s a 20 minute drive from Blarney to Cork, we found our hotel and again we’re happy with our choice…a lovely large room and only a 10 minute walk to the very heart of the city.

We did some washing and had a rest before setting off into the city centre to find somewhere for dinner...we ended up in an Italian restaurant and both had seafood linguine. We also chose a pub for tomorrow night...it features live music from 7pm...should be good.