Blarney Castle was built in 1446 of solid limestone
Blarney Castle's great hall
Windows of Blarney Castle overlook surrounding gardens
The Gardens surrounding Blarney Castle include landscaped ponds and forests. 
Lord Blarney's former bedroom
Kiss the Blarney Stone and get the "gift of the gab"
Blarney Castle's tower is crowned with baby ferns.
Blarney Woolen Mills is a two-storey warehouse of crystal, linen, woolen sweaters and
pottery
The Devonview B&B is a rickety Victorian Mansion |
EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNAL November 2, 1998
Youghal
Legend has it that if you kiss the Blarney Stone you'll get the gift of
the gab, or as one 18th century French consul put it, "gain the privilege of telling
lies for seven years". It was Queen Elizabeth I who invented the term, after
years of exasperation with Lord Blarney's endless pontification without ever actually
agreeing to any of her demands. Bending over backwards to kiss the stone, which is in fact
on entire wall of the castle, kissed from the top floor, requires a head for heights.
Blarney Castle is actually a tower house, built from solid limestone and dates from
1446.
Legend also has it that young men employed to help kissers bend
backwards and then get up again, finish every evening by relieving themselves on the
stone.
The Blarney Woolen Mills is a two-story warehouse of Everything Irish.
It features the wares of top fashion designers and potters, linen, Waterford crystal and
about ten thousand woolen sweaters.
We leave Steph and the Halls in the afternoon and drive a few
kilometers east to Youghal, ending up in a towering, romantic Bates Motel-type of
Victorian house called the Devon View B&B. The building is centred with a
zig-zagging, crickety staircase with various rooms jutting out at opportune moments.
The proprietor has situated us in what appears to be a former sitting room,
with floor-to-ceiling windows dressed with velvet curtains, a marble fireplace and
an eerie, antique, blood-red velvet bedroom suite.
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Blarney Castle is actually a towerhouse
3 floors to top of castle
the Wishing Steps are part of the ornate, imaginative gardens surrounding the castle
Blarney castle ramparts
Blarney's tower overlooks the surrounding countryside
the fairy's garden, Blarney
Thousands of handmade sweaters at the Blarney Woolen Mills
A bed made of red velvet and knotted mahogany awaits us at the Devonview B&B
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