Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle, a massive fifth century keep with walls 18ft/5.5m thick and a 82ft/25m high tower, is the strongest castle in the province of Munster. In one of its walls is the famous Blarney Stone, which is believed to bestow the gift of eloquence on anyone who kisses it. The origin of the tradition is unknown.

The castle has given a new word to the English language. Queen Elizabeth I had instructed her Governor in Ireland to call upon Cormac MacCarthy, then Lord of Blarney, to give up the traditional system by which the clans elected their own chiefs and instead to accept the grant of his lands from the Crown. Cormac MacCarthy, while seeming to agree to the proposal, repeatedly put forward plausible excuses for failing to carry it out, until the Queen declared in exasperation: "This is all Blarney: what he says he never means." Hence the use of "blarney" to mean fair words intended to deceive without offending. On the vaulted upper floor of the castle is a large chimney. Round the top of the building runs a battlemented parapet walk, and here a visitor who wants to kiss the Blarney Stone must lie on his back and, with someone holding him, lean backwards and downwards to kiss the underside of the stone. From the battlements there are magnificent views.

The castle grounds, laid out in the 18th C., contain a grove of trees, grottoes and a pretty dell with a circle of large stones known as Rock Close.

Blarney House (1874) in the castle grounds above Blarney lake, has been carefully restored and has a fine interior.