Blarney Castle

We figured out our route, up Leitrim Street to turn left onto New Mallow Road and made it out of Cork with little incident. We turned left onto the R617 off of New Mallow Road but when we got into the village of Monacnapa there was a small amount of confusion. We came down the hill to a T- junction and there was a large sign pointing up to the right that said Tower. There was no sign pointing to the left. So we went to the right.We wound up in the town of Tower. When we asked a passerby how to get to the castle they sent us back to Monacnapa and told us to go to the left at the T- junction.

When we got to the castle, which was easy then, we did ask at the entry about having no signs to find the castle and they told us it was up to the Manacnapa town council and they did not want any directions signs put up.

Both Maureen and I thought that was the dumbest thing we had ever heard. Here is this tourist attraction that pulls in huge amounts of money to the town and you don’t want to advertise how to get there?

Very odd.

But maybe people don't actually stop in the small town, but just drive through it. That is probably true and so the tourists don't leave lots of money in the village. only the exhaust fumes from cars and tour buses. It's a puzzle.

Anyway. We got to the grounds for the castle around 9am when it first opened and so there were hardly any people there yet.

The walk to the castle brings one through woods and across streams that at one time where part of the moat system around the castle. A lovely trail goes almost all the way around the castle so that you get a lot of different angles to look at.

There were also lots of information plaques strategically located to the best advantage.

I kind of got ahead of Maureen as I wanted to kiss the blarney stone and she did not.

I figured that if I got up there quickly before too many others there would be fewer chances of germs.

I did not know at the time that the Blarney Stone had been voted the most unhygienic tourist attraction in the world.

I mean really, how could that be. If you were early and it had just rained all night then it should be clean, right? Silly Eh?

To that end I climbed the very steep stairs with only the hanging down rope hand rail in the center of the staircase and seemed to be only big enough for my very slim and petite ten year old granddaughter.

I climbed the steeper stairs with the rope along the wall hand rail that made me think that the people who built this place must have been very slim with very long legs and short bodies. Then came the round stairs with the metal hand rail to the next level of the castle and finally the squared off type of stairs to the top of the castle.

I walked around the perimeter of the top of the castle looking into the center as it has no roof or floors and waited for my turn. There were only a few people in line so my turn came quickly. The gentleman asked me if I wanted my picture taken kissing the stone and I said yes.

Then he asked me to sit with my back to the wall and lean back down into the opening. One gentleman hangs on to you and guides you to the stone and a second takes your picture. There are two handrails, one on each side of the opening to hang on to and there was a grate so that you could not actually fall all the way to the ground if they lost their grip on you. When I leaned back and down into the opening the gentleman told me to get lower down and pushed me down lower into the hole.

Now I should point out that he was holding onto me as well when he was pushing me down. I was trying to get a grip on the rails and slide myself down but he was quite strong and everything seemed to be moving so quickly that I felt as if I would fall into the grate. He said look for the dark stone at the bottom of the wall and when I saw it I kissed it quick. Then he pulled me up so quick it was over in less than a minute.

I got up and walked around the other half of the top of the castle and waited for Maureen thinking that if I were probably six inches taller it would have been a very different experience. While I was waiting the sun did peek out from behind the clouds and it was beautiful.

It didn't take long and she was there. Got a picture of her kissing the castle.

She said 'And very proud of it. Going to tell dad, he is a better man than me'

as ,when he was in Ireland, he kissed the stone.

Then we explored.

There was this crow that Maureen wanted me to try and get a picture of.

It seemed to like Maureen and was not really afraid of people at all. I think tourists must have fed him or something.

There were little rooms and niches, windows with thick walls and great views. big rooms with carved decorations on the walls. like a maze in some places but all very fun and very interesting.

Views through peepholes in the walls and old fireplaces. If the floors of each level had been there it would have been cool but it would have taken a lot longer to tour.

Blarney castle or the site has a long history.

A wooden structure was built on the site in the 1200 AD but was replaced with a stone fortification in 1210 AD. The current Castle is actually a medieval stronghold built by the McCarthy clan in 1466.

They cut stone from the ground around where the castle is sitting on to increase the height by lowering the ground around the castle while at the same time using the cut stone to build the castle higher.

The Blarney stone or the Stone of Eloquence was, some say, the part of the 'Lia Fail' a magical stone that Irish kings sat upon.

There are actually several legends about where it came from but I like that one the best. It is a block of bluestone or Dolerite which appears blue when it gets wet. Some say it was taken out of Ireland and into Scotland by the early irish when they settled in what is now Scotland.

It was given to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 for his efforts in the Battle of Bannockburn. The stone was put into a tower when the castle was built in 1446.

All in all it was a most fascinating morning. Next the grounds around Blarney.

Early one morning- Friday

I woke up to Ingrid using the washroom and then there was this sound. At first I thought it was a bird but it turned out to be an alarm about two blocks away. Needless to say I got up at about 420am and went looking for a mailbox to mail the 19 postcards that I had written the night before.

It was a misty kind of morning, dampish and cool but not cold. The only cars on the street were taxis and cops. I found the mailbox at the end of the street and decided to look for an all night coffee shop. We were right across the street from the University College of Cork, the UCC so I thought there must be at least one. It is a university. I did not find one.

I walked all the way around the campus perimeter and part way through it. I saw one young man walking probably home after a party and said good morning to him, which kind of surprised him. And a little later another young man going into the university. Probably to work. They lock the campus up at night so there must not be dorms on the site. I did not give up my quest. I went on down the street to the little bridge that yesterday was so busy with little cars. There were no cars and no coffee shops.

I walked up a little lane along the North branch of the river Lee to where the alarm was going off at this football field. It probably was going off for hours. At this point I thought about crime in Cork. Was there any, what kind would it be, why was I walking alone in the middle of the night in a city I did not know and where no one knew where I was? Those things past through my brain rather quickly and then I was diverted again.

Lots of birds were awake at 430 even though it was dark. They might have been woken up by the alarm but I think they are probably just early risers like myself. I had brought my umbrella with me and did open it a few times but it never really rained, it just misted heavily on me. Finally I started to see fauna. I saw a light coloured slug with spots, some starlings and a small Heron? It was too dark. I heard lots of different calls and songs but did not see them all.

I walked around a beautiful park, Fitzgerald park I found out later, with a museum or something in the center of it. One of the oldest parks in Cork. If you want to google earth it the coordinates are 51° 53' 45.03" N 8° 29' 50.10" W . The access gates were locked so a could not walk through it.

When I came up to the hostel, we were almost right across the lane from the park, I went inside to see if I could get a cup of tea. But no, the kitchen was locked, the dining room was locked, the living room was locked, so I sat in the front hall and wrote in the journal. It was 615 am when I heard someone in the dining room. I was excited. He said that in 20 minutes he would have the keys to the kitchen and then I could have my cup of tea. Yea! It was still a misty dark grey outside and there was still little or no traffic. What time do people start going to work here? At 630 I had my cup of tea. The gentleman who was setting up the dining room told me that there was an early group leaving that morning otherwise he would not have been there that early. I was so glad of that. I would not have wanted to wait another hour and a half. I thought about going for another walk but the gates to the park did not open until 830 and I was pretty sure that Maureen would be awake by then. I caught up with the journal. I tried to do it every night so that I could remember what the heck happened. So much happened every day. Our lives were full of incident and adventure.

I went upstairs at 7 to find Maureen awake. Shocking. Appears I woke up Late (700am!)

We had a lovely breakfast prepared by the kitchen and then Maureen used the phone at the hostel. Still can’t get my card to work. Ah well, courage, I got through to Dom at midnight (his time) All’s well.

We packed up which did not take long and figured out how to get to Blarney, our next adventure.

St Finnbarre's

In 607 AD St Finbarre (Blond Hair) came down the River Lee and built his church on a rock in the great Marsh.

Cork City grew up around that church. At one time Cork was like Venice with water ways in-between everybody’s houses, but over time they built bridges and covered the water over,

so Cork is actually still built over the marsh.

In Gaelic ‘corcaigh’ means swamp. )Pronounced Kierik Moor acccording to Michael who we meet later on)

A medieval cathedral was on the site but was damaged during the Siege of Cork in 1689 -90 when the nearby (and I do mean nearby, I think less than 100 yards away)

Elizabeth Fort fired cannonballs at the archers in the church towers who were shooting arrows at them.

In 1735 a small neo-classical church was built on the site and when the smaller church and the steeples were being demolished, a cannon ball was found in one of the steeples and it now hangs in the new cathedral as a kind of souvenir.

The new Cathedral is gothic revival in style and was started in 1862 by architect William Burges. It was consecrated in 1870 but the towers and spires were not finished until 1879.

There is also a copper and gold leaf statue of an angel donated by the architect above the pinnacle of the sanctuary roof called the Resurrection Angel with a superstition about it.

If it ever falls it will be the end of the world. You gotta love those old superstitions.

The building is all carved stone and detailed with working gargoyles and saints showing the way into each set of doors.
Inside this magnificent structure are mosaics and stained glass windows galore.

High, high ceilings and grand arches all stone and carved wood.

Maureen took one side of the cathedral and I took the other. After wandering around for about thirty minutes and gawking and taking many pictures, I went and picked up a little pamphlet about the cathedral. I then read about the cannon ball and enquired to Cliff, a gentleman who volunteers to inform tourists of these little tidbits, where it might be.

He asked where I was from and when I said Alberta, he broke into song "Think I'll go home to Alberta".

He had a pretty nice voice and I told him so. He motioned me to follow him down the side aisle and we would up at a piano where he sang" I don't have a wooden heart" the high ceilings are made for song and his voice, even though he was singing softly, was lovely. Then he told me about the cannonball and showed it to me . It was just within steps of the piano.

I found Maureen who had been taking even more pictures than me and we wandered around together for awhile. Then we chatted with Mark, another volunteer, and Cliffe who told us more stories of Cork and the cathedral.

There were Carved monkeys and goats and horses with arrows through their eyes. Quite gruesome those old time stoneworkers. Working gargoyles, how fun.

It makes you wonder how they could build something that would last for one hundred and thirty years, with the tools that they had way back then. What they built does need repairs yes, but nowadays we build things that get torn down within thirty of forty years.We kept them until past closing and finally left being very impressed and glad we decided to walk up the hill and see St Finbarres, although it really wasn't that long of a walk.

We found out that Elizabeth castle, just next door, was now used as a police station.

The Irish have so many saints that we were not familiar with and we had just met another ones very impressive legacy.

Even though it was sunny it was getting late and it was a little chilly.

and we were thirsty so we went back down the hill in search of refreshment.

Cork - Pubs and Hostels

After our religious experience we needed a drink so wandered down the hill and lo and belhold there was a bar. Fordes. Maureen said ‘I am not going in if there are no women in there’ and when I opened the door the first person we saw was a woman. It was a sign.

So we each ordered a 1/2 pint of Beamish and chatted with

locals about the brewery shutting down, the recession in Ireland and Canada, beer in general and just had a lovely time. We tried to find out where all of the pubs were on the coasters that Maureen had bought. We found out that Fordes had been a family pub since 1850 or so and we even met the owner, a lovely lady . It was starting to get late but we moved into a sunny spot and Michael Crowley a divorced dockworker bought us each a 1/2 pint of fosters which after beamish was like heaven. We were starting to get hungry so thought that some Crisps (potato chips) might take the edge off. Onion and cheese flavoured. Nothing to write home about.

Wandered back across the bridge and caught the #8 right away and rode the 5 or 6 blocks back to the hostel. Had bread and cheese for dinner. really good Irish cheese. Then got our PJ’s and postcards out of the car, made our beds and started to write postcards. Well I did anyway. Maureen read. Our other 2 roomies came in, 2 young girls from Florida. We chatted and found out that they were going to

Killarney early the next morning and when I told them about my Village walks cards they borrowed a few and copied them down so that thet would have a clue where they wanted to go when they got there. They both went out about 10pm and I went to sleep. Ingrid, our dutch roomie, came in very late and then the girls came back and they tried to be quiet, only whispering, but they were very loud whisperers. I did manage to get back to sleep. So much for sharing accommodations. That was OK because we were leaving the next day too.

Downtown Cork

We pulled Card #27 - Cork City.

We caught the # 8 or #14 to downtown and hit the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, which was very nice. I could have spent a whole day in there very easily. between the sculptures and all the different shows it was really a great art gallery. The painting 'Time Flies 'by William Gerard Barry was one of our favorites. I did try to take pictures without flash but most were fuzzy and almost

unrecognizable to the originals. When I use zoom on my camera I really should get a tripod as any movement causes the pictures to blur. But at least I get the idea of what they looked like.

We had a most scrumptious lunch at the Café Bar Deli (it couldn’t make up its mind what it wanted to be). It had a

lovely tin ceiling. Maureen had the butternut and cider soup and I had the feta and roasted hazelnut mixed salad with roasted red pepper pesto. Yummy!

The girl behind the till recognized a fellow Canadian when we went to pay because I said Tooney. It is really all a secret code. She was from Nova Scotia and had been in Ireland for the past two years at school.

Lots of rain and sun mixed up with lots of shops and people and a very large very old church but we could not figure out the name of it.

We also went into the famous English Market, a very large indoor market and bought pears and cashews.

The exit we took brought us right across the street from a great little park in the middle of Cork. It had little copses of birch trees which Maureen wanted pictures of. There were fountains and the

statue of the Onion Seller which I liked very much. As it was close to lunch time there were a few people in the park which I found interesting as it had just rained like crazy and so was definitely damp.

A real little gem of a park. A quiet space in the middle of the busy city. At the far end was a swan fountain. Or maybe canada geese but we are going to go with swans and they

seem to be all over Ireland. Very cool .

Our mission was to find the Beamish Brewery and go on the tour. It was supposed to be on the other side of the park so we were eager to get there, as it had been a thirsty morning. When we exited the park we found that we had arrived at the proper location. We went up to the little security house at the entrance and asked the guard when the tours were and he informed us that the Brewery had been shut down due to the recession. The brewery had moved half the staff to another brewery in town but had to lay off the other half. We were very sad.

So we decided to go to St Finbarr'se Cathedral instead. Across the Bridge and up the hill to one of the most fabulous churches I have ever seen.

Thursday - To Cork

Thursday - To Cork,

It was easy to get out of Youghal. A van pulled up right behind us and tailgated until we got up to speed which we thought was quite rude really and our first encounter with an impatient Irish driver.

There are the most wonderful signs in Ireland.

Have you ever seen a cute bend sign. We did. At first it kind of had me thinking what the heck, but I figured it out pretty quick. Acute Bend does not mean that the bend is cute.

Killeagh was very cute with old buildings and colourful houses and shops. A very cute small town.

As we drove on out into the country the aroma of salt water and cows invaded our car.

Quite an odiferous moment, ahhh ... farmers fields in the spring.

The clouds were starting to roll in.

There were stonewalls around fields and some were covered with hedges. So many shades of green. ‘And shades - and shades - and shades- and shades- and shades!!! ‘

We passed through Castlemartyr, which was very pretty, even in the rain.

Maureen was getting more comfortable driving now as we appeared to be zipping right along. ‘At the Ready!!!’

Just as all was seeming fine, a circle, but not a bad one with divided highway after that. What a treat, and sunshine to boot. Another circle. Are we getting good at this or what?

A sign at the side of the road tells us that Cork is a nuclear free zone. That is most comforting.

Downtown Cork is very busy and our map to the hostel was not so good.

We ended up at the university asking directions from a young girl who must have thought I was walking because when we tried to follow her directions we wound up on the wrong side of the river Lee . We pulled in to a little flower shop where the owner gave us great directions to the hostel.

Getting back across the bridge was tricky as it was very busy

and the cars were coming across ‘like little fish being born swimming so fast’ that there was no time to scoot into the lane we needed. But we did and when we got to the hostel we found that they did not have any parking in the front. They gave us directions on how to get to their parking in the rear ,which, if any mistakes were made would mean another tour of the neighbourhood to get back to the one way lane to get to the laneway to the parking area.

We decided that I would go and stand in the laneway out back so that Maureen would know where to pull in. While I was waiting it poured cats and dogs. Luckily I had my trusty umbrella. We were in Room 6 and when we got up there, we always seemed to be on the second or third floor, there was someone’s things in the room. I thought well this is weird they gave us a room that was already occupied.

So I went down and told the check in folks that someone’s things are in our room and they looked at me like I was crazy and said ‘Yes, It is a shared room.’ Well, Did I feel like an idiot or what? I forgot that we were sharing in some of our accommodations. Ha ha.

We settled in and met one of our roomies, Ingrid, a very friendly and very chatty lady from the Netherlands. We decided to go for a coffee. Just down the street we were told was a coffee shop as well as the buses to go into downtown. We left the car at the hostel, grabbed our umbrellas and walked. The Coffee and Chai tea were great. We made our plans to adventure in Cork.

Youghal

I woke up at 4 am with the birds and went for a walk down the street to the lighthouse and

then back to the park in front of the hotel.

There was, of course, no one out yet, not even the sun.

Took a few pictures of the water and some kind of bird out on the water that, with the light the way it was, made it look like the lock ness monster in away.

In the middle of the park was a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh and around the base were four plaques in remembrance of four Irishmen who were

killed by the British in 1798. There was an uprising in Ireland that year and many on both sides were killed. I found out that the Queen gave Sir Raleigh the town of Youghal for his services to the country. Nice gift.

Many Irish left during those times. I know that in our family, grandmas side came earlier than the uprising. Grandpas family, who were from Cork, although I don’t know if they were from

county Cork or City Cork, came over to Canada in the late 1700’s.

I wondered

if we were related to one of these men in particular. O’Brien is a common Irish name, but you never know. It is possible.

The sunrise was golden.

I found my way around to the back of the hotel looking for the birds that I could hear. Starlings, doves and finches were what I saw.

Went back inside and chatted with the desk clerk. He was from Poland and had some fun stories about his first year in Ireland.

I used face book to let everyone know that we were alive and well and having a great time and went up to the room at twenty to seven. I was surprised to find Maureen awake. the dining room opened at 730 so we made plans to have breakfast at 8.

I went downstairs to the dining room had a cup of tea and updated our journal.

Maureen joined me and we had a lovely Irish breakfast. Tea for me and coffee for Maureen, eggs, soda bread and fruit. I believe that Maureen tried the black sausage or black bread and I believe she enjoyed it.

We checked out and only had a bit of trouble backing out of the parking spot. Turned out we were on a wee bit of a slope down and each time Maureen took her foot off the clutch, before she could get the car actually going in reverse, we rolled a little bit closer to the hotel and the pole that was in front of the car.

It was a little tense.

In the end a kind gentleman backed the car up and helped us to be on our way.

It was that old driving with everything on the opposite side of the car

thing that was causing the difficulty.

But we and the car and the hotel all survived. We went into town, all of three blocks I think, and parked at the Heritage center. Pulled out card number 34 of my Village Walks of Ireland and went on a walking tour.

Our stroll in the warm sunshine took us past quays or docking areas

for boats and up to the main street with lots of little shops and cafes.

Maureen needed batteries for her camera and we found a 15th century priory sort of.

The only original thing left of it was the door, the arch

and a small hall behind as most of it had been converted to shops many years ago and the plaque which told us that is used to be a priory.

It was a most charming town and quite busy too. It is extraordinary that all the shops are brightly coloured so when you look down the street it is like a rainbow. What is common in Ireland is Not so common for us.

We also stopped into Mrs Quinn's Charity Shop for the blind and we each picked up something.

I got a suit and a scarf and I actually don't recall what Maureen got.We had fun trying on skirts and blouses and things made in ireland and france and england. It really was exotic even though it was second hand.

I love the names of streets and lanes here.

We are by this time used to looking up on the buildings for street names. Our little card map sends us straight up the main road to see the 15th century castle and the 18th century Dutch renaissance house but first we returned to the car with our purchases and then came back to continue on our way, arms unimpeded and loaded up with new batteries.

We proceeded to the Red house and Tynte’s Castle.

Both of these were impressive.

The Red house is a private residence not open to tours so you cannot go inside. I can only imagine what the interior was like but from the outside it was lovely.

What must living there be like for the owners? maybe they have gotten used to it by now.

Having people taking pictures and hanging around reading your historic information plague. Right across the street from the Red House is Tynte’s Castle, which is more of a fortified large home or a kind of smallish castle, but lovely nonetheless.

We wanted to go to Church street and see St Mary’s Collegiate Church but we missed the road somehow and

ended up walking all the way up and around the Wall.

The town of Youghal was one of the only towns in the 13th century to be surrounded by a wall and much of the original wall remains. It was very high and wide and long. there are turrets and crosses in the stone and lovely old crests of lions. Repairs were being done at the time and so we could not go through this one part of the wall into the garden

of the church that we wanted to get to. Oh well, Fate. There were some great views of the bay and the city from up there on the hill. From the end of the wall are some stairs going all the way

down to the Clock Gate where they hung the Irish gentlemen who had plaques in the park. It was quite interesting as a navigational experience for us as it is on the main street and you have to drive or walk through the arch that seems to be only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. Once we had safely navigated our way through the arch we went back to the Heritage Center car and bought postcards, stamps and souvenirs. Next we organized the car and ourselves and headed out to City Cork.

Now in the hotel we had seen pictures of the Titanic as Youghal had been one of its last ports of call before its fateful first and last voyage. There were also pictures of a great beach that was supposedly in Youghal but we had not so far seen any sign of this beach and could not figure out where along the bay it might be. I thought maybe at low tide it was in front of the hotel but could not be sure as I had, I thought, seen all the tides

and there had been no beach. As we headed out of town and past the hotel and past the lighthouse around the corner came into view this magnificent sandy beach. If we had known we might have spent a little less time walking around the wall and a little bit more exploring the other side of the town. Oh well, next time.

On to Cork.