As a medieval stronghold, the current keep of Blarney Castle was built by the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty and dates from 1446. It is famous for the Stone of Eloquence, better known as the Blarney Stone. When you get to the top, you may hang upside-down over a sheer drop to kiss the stone, which is said to give the gift of eloquence. The queue to get to the tower was too long for our taste, so we decided to enjoy the gardens instead.
When the keep became too uncomfortable, the members of the Jefferyes family built a large house nearby. This house was destroyed by fire, and in 1874 a replacement mansion, known as Blarney House, was built overlooking the nearby lake. Descendants of the family still live in the house and manage the estate.
The tall tree ferns from the other side of the world are survivors of the Jurassic period
The village of Blarney is small with a lovely green square in the centre and the big Woollen Mill selling every kind of Irish knitwear. We made it out without anything, but the seed is planted. We can’t leave Ireland without one of these lovely jumpers, can we? As a friend said: it’s an investment for generations.
From Blarney, we were heading to the coast, where we spent the night before we visited Timoleague Friary.
The medieval Franciscan friary, overlooking Courtmacsherry Bay, was built on an early Christian monastic site founded by Saint Molaga.
The present remains date from roughly the turn of the fourteenth century and were burnt down by British forces in the mid-seventeenth century, at which point it was an important ecclesiastical centre that engaged in significant trade with Spain.
Our next destination was the Drombeg Stone Cirlce, a megalithic site with two taller entrance stones placed opposite a recumbent axial stone. Its axis is orientated south-west towards the setting sun during the midwinter solstice.
Next to the stone circle were two round stone-walled prehistoric huts and a fulacht fiadh, an Irish cooking pit from the Bronze Age which has a hearth, well and a water trough. Evidence suggests it was in use until approximately the 5th century AD.
We are heading out to Baltimore next!