Gift o' the Gab

Blarney is celebrated the world over for a stone on the parapet that is said to endow whoever kisses it with the eternal gift of eloquence (in Irish 'solabharthact') - the 'Gift of the Gab'.

Blarney Castle, County Cork

The origin of the custom of kissing the Blarney Stone is unknown, though the word "blarney", meaning to placate with soft talk or to deceive without offending, probably derives from the stream of unfulfilled promises of Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy to the Lord President of Munster in the late sixteenth century. Having seemingly agreed to deliver his castle to the Crown, he continuously delayed doing so with soft words, which came to be known as "Blarney talk".

There's the Blarney Stone, on top of the castle, one small stone.
I think we expected something a little bigger.

You have to lay down, and kiss the stone upside down.

Yes, you can see the grass down below..

The massive castle, which looks even larger because of its picturesque situation on the edge of a cliff, was supposedly built in 1446 by Cormac MacCarthy "the Strong", probably on the site of a castle occupied by the Lombards, whom the MacCarthys had displaced. The building sequence is a little puzzling, but the slender tower containing the main stair and a tier of small rooms evidently predates the main block. The whole is crowned with high stepped battle ments, projecting more than 2 feet beyond the walls and carried by long inverted pyramid corbels.

The grounds around Blarney Castle

When Ryan and I visited Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone, all that we had read and people we talked to said it was a tourist trap. Well, I happen to think it was one of the coolest afternoons we had while we were in Ireland. If that's what they call a tourist trap, we should have done more of it. We were lucky that it was rainy and not many people were there, but it was a fascinating experience! I still wonder if we got a touch of the "gift" or not.

Here's a closer image of Blarney Castle, you can see it sits on a huge rock.
Underneath it are caves, and all around are ancient Druid rock gardens.

There were many more rooms than I expected.

This was the kitchen.

Check out those stairs!