Ireland - Day 3

It's off to Blarney we go! Located a short bus ride outside of Cork City, Blarney is home to the well known Blarney Castle. While the Castle is open during the late fall-winter-early spring months, the house and most of the gardens are closed.
Outside the castle grounds and by the shops and resturants there was an open park area. I can only imagine how full it must be with locals and tourists during the summer. Everyone out having a picnic or local musicians and artists entertaining the public. While we were there it was only full of fallen leaves. The picture of the bench reminds me of what can be a time of peaceful solitude or a great resting place to watch the action around you.

The fall colors could be seen every where you looked. Ireland is as green as they say, and the colors of fall were just as vibrant.

I love this picture from the top of Blarney Castle looking over the grounds and village. It makes me wonder what color of green the trees would be in the summer time and what they must have looked like only one month previous of the fall rather than it being almost winter.

Now you see that tiny little opening at the very top of the castle? Yep - that's the one! You lay down and have from the middle to lower part of your butt/hips on the edge and you hang upside down to properly reach and kiss the Blarney Stone. There is someone there to help you and to date they have not lost one person!

What was really interesting about walking through the Castle to get to the very top was in many rooms, people etched their names and date into the walls. There were some names and dates going back to 1860. All I know is that my great-grandfather once visited Blarney Castle and kissed the stone....as I have now done.

Yep - that's me hanging upside down kissing the stone! The bars I'm holding onto provide a sense of balance and security - and you can see there are bars across the bottom of the opening. The open area is no more than two feet across, I don't even want to guess how many feet down I'm hanging! :o)

After exploring some of the grounds that were open, we went to a local pub to get some food, have a pint and then catch the next bus back to the city. It didn't quite happen like that though....we met some really nice folks and got talking & playing darts with them. So we stayed for a few more pints, and then dinner.

We caught the last bus back to the city and stumbled into bed.