Great stay here at the Trident Hotel, gotta say we have had some amazing hotels during this trip, each having its own incredible feature. This hotel is the view along with the incredible breakfast. We rolled out of Kinsale for our day adventure to The Blarney castle and Cork about 45 minutes away at about noon. Blarney castle is the popular one were everyone lines up and slowly ascends the castle visiting the rooms and chambers, all up a very narrow stairwell before surfacing to the roof top. Once you get to the top you circumnavigate the roof top and then choose to get flipped upside down in order to receive the gift of “eloquence” or as some say, the gift of the gab. Pretty cool and novel thing to do as millions have done it over the centuries.
Blarney castle is actually the third structure to be erected on this site. In the tenth century there was a wooden hunting lodge here. Around 1210 this was replaced by a stone structure. This building was demolished for foundations of the third castle by Dermot MacCarthy in 1446. It is the tower house, or fortress residence of this that is known today as Blarney Castle. The story of the Blarney Stone itself is a long one and back centuries, something about it being Jacob pillow, brought to Ireland by the prophet, Jeremiah. The legend continues where it says it was removed to mainland Scotland, where it served as the prophetic power of royal succession, the Stone if Destiny. When Cormac MacCarthy, King of Munster, send four thousand men to support Robert the Brucein his defeat of the English at Bannockburn in 1314, the stone was split in half and sent to Blarney. Some years later, a witch saved from drowning revealed its powers to the MacCarthys. That, “There is a Stone there, That whoever kisses, Oh, He never misses, To grow elequent”. So in short, you will never be at a loss of words in any situation. Boy I feel better already, lol.
Great visit here as we strolled the grounds with the on again off again showers. They have a Poison garden here, we are not to touch anything, incredible. One plant in particular was the, marijuana plant, which was held captive in a huge cage - you must stay away from this one, lol. There wishing steps, a fairy glade along with many other cool and whimsical things, including the seven sister rock formation. We were here a few hours before the real rain set in so time to leave. The good news with this weather and our timing was that some people can wait up to two hours to get to the top of the castle to kiss the stone, our wait was about forty minutes. BTW, in order to see the castle you really must go through this line, so you might as well get your “gift” when you get to the top. And you may ask, or say, I’m not kissing that after all those people, well there is a guy helping you and Jan asked him if it was possible to give it a little cleaning before she kissed it. No problem, a couple of shots with an antiseptic spray and a good wipe down and it was as clean as clean could be. So all good.
We then headed to Cork for a scone and a latte and a bit of a look around before heading back to Kinsale. We had a dinner reservation to a very nice restaurant here called, Fishy Fishy. Absolutely fabulous. Highly recommended if you are passing through this way. So another great day as our trip comes to a close here are our selected pics of the day, hope you enjoy...
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