Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle! Home to the Kings of Munster and the Blarney Stone. Kiss it to receive the gift of gab! You will never be lost for words again. It is the most photographed castle in all of Ireland. After visiting it I understand why, it is beautiful!. The grounds are large and you can wonder them for hours. All that is left of the castle is the stone shell of the once mid-15th century stronghold.  And I love this picture of me and Henry. You can see his sweet little face and he is adorable in that green hat (thanks Brooke!).

Blarney Castle has a very rich history. It was originally a wooden structure built in around 1200 AD. The word blarney now means talk that is not true but that is nice and somewhat funny and that may be used to trick you. It got it's funny definition from Queen Elizabeth. She wanted the Lord of Blarney (Cormac MacCarthy) to will his castle to the crown, but he kept refusing her requests with talk that is not true but nice and somewhat funny. She got fed up with his compliments and is recorded to have said "this is all Blarney. What he says he rarely means." I have since incorporated it into my vocabulary. 

Took a picture of her next to the carriages because this is what horses pull.

Posing for us on a bench her size.

The stable yard where the restaurant is now located. 

We enjoyed some good ole bowls of Irish stew and soda bread at the café there. It was the best stew I have ever had. I was pleasantly surprised. The flavor was fantastic. I love me some soup on a cold winter day. It was perfect.

It's a long way to the top.

We are ready to start our journey to the top. It is a journey to the top. There are 127 narrow stairs and plenty of rooms off to the side to explore. We took our time and explored a lot of the rooms off to the side. 

Exploring the castle. 

My little explorer. I think she enjoyed exploring all the rooms the best. 

She had a great time jumping over this little ditch. 

  

As you can read, this was once the banquet hall. 

Made it to the top! It was kind of scary at the top. Not much around the edges. Mainly it was scary because we had our two babies up there and Cosette was running around and jumping on everything. We were both feared that she would tumble off the edge. We spent enough time to kiss the stone and enjoy the views then headed down as quickly as we could. 

Me kissing the stone. I am not going to lie, it was pretty scary. It might not look like it is far down, but the stone is way down there. Here is how it goes. You sit down and have an employee hold you by the waist and help lower you down while holding on the guard rail. Well I got lowered way down. Kind of freaked me out. But I did it! I kissed the stone. The gift of gab is mine. 

Lyndon kissing the stone. It kind of freaked him out too how far he got lowered down. I asked Cosette if she wanted to kiss the stone and she said "yes" then turned to the rock wall next to us and kissed it. We asked the man if she could kiss the Blarney Stone and he was going to let her do it, but she was not too keen on letting a stranger touch her. Maybe the wall is infused with the gift of gab as well. Oh, and if you think kissing the stone is gross because so many other lips have touched it, fear not! I read in our guide book that the stone is cleaned with disinfectant several times a day so completely sanitary. 

The view from the top is most impressive. Even if you don't kiss the stone it is worth the hike up to the top. It was beautiful. 

Blarney village over there. We picked the absolute best day to visit Blarney. The weather was perfect, which is lucky in Ireland. Guess the luck of the Irish was with us.

Lyndon carried Henry the whole time. They had some good father and son bonding. Plus, I was too freaked out to carry him on those stairs. They were narrow, wet, and muddy. I was afraid I was going to slip. I think I held on to Cosette's hand a little to hard while going down them because I was afraid she might slip and fall. She almost did a couple of times too. 

We made it out safe. They have two of these benches right out in front of the Castle. 

We spent a good while exploring the grounds. This tree was is huge and oddly shaped like something from a Dr. Seuss book. I read that there is a grove of Yew trees that was a site for druidic worship. 

There is a lovely mannor house on the grounds we walked by. We saw the owner riding her bike in with her two dogs. Lucky, lucky woman to live in a beautiful place and house like this. 

Some things never change. Playing in the rocks is her favorite.

In front of Blarney House.

Lyndon wanted to take a picture of me in front of the mossy rocks. I climbed up on them to give him a good photo, haha. He was not expecting that!

This look's like a picture from a Jane Austen novel. 

Dancing in the sun light.

Throwin rocks, making ripples. This is how we have fun.

My beautiful girl! I want to say my beautiful baby, but she is too big to be called a baby now. 

Clover in Ireland!

This rock formation is known as Lion Rock because it looks like a lion. I really want to call it Pride Rock in honor of Lion King or at least give it a more creative or prominent name. Maybe Aslan's Rock?

Lyndon keeping on his tradition this time on Lion Rock.

 

There is a fern garden off to one of the paths we took. It was muddy so Lyndon waited with outside with the stroller while I took a  stroll around. The ferns that were not tied up were huge. I have never seen ferns this big. They are very jungle like. I was surprised to see something like this not in a tropical setting, but then again it rains so much here it is a cold climate rain forest.

 

This little video lets you know what Cosette thought of the Castle. It was a blast scary stairs and all!