A Cool and Windy Morning at the Castle

I woke up early to the wind blowing through a crack in the window that we forgot to close last night. The tide was on its way out and a bit of beach was showing through the rain and wind. I thought 'if the weather stays like this I'm not going out'. Maureen was also awake so we thought that it must be quite late. We had arranged to have breakfast at 930 and didn't want to be late, so I had a nice hot shower, dressed and went downstairs to find out what time it was. All was very quiet.

No one was awake! I did get distracted on the way downstairs by a few of the antiques that were everywhere.

A very large old Bible sitting behind a chair by the window in the hall by the stairs caught my eye. I opened it very carefully and found an inscription "1833 to Elizabeth Anne Townshend" Holy Cow! It was almost two hundred years old and just sitting there.

I wandered around just looking at things ,working my way downstairs.

I figured out how to operate the TV and found out is was around 8 AM.

I figured we must have woke up at around 630 or 7 . So I went back up to the third floor and told Maureen, grabbed my camera and then returned to watch the news, taking pictures all the way. Found the news and a channel that carries Horse jumping or horse things all day long! I want this in Canada!

Ann came through very quickly and starting making breakfasts. In the castle they have passages that only they( the owners and staff) use and passages that are for the use of the paying guests.

Ann opened the dining room about 9 and it was beautiful. Antique everything. A great Fireplace with an inlaid marble mantle, side tables and Trophy cups. Chairs and tables, Antiques, antiques. antiques.

Maureen came down and we had breakfast which was also very good. Scrambled eggs, beans, mushrooms, fruit. But no potatoes, they don't do potatoes in the morning. The sun came out and the wind died down and it started to look like we might be able to go out after all.

Castletownshend

As we came around a corner in the town of Castletownshend, we were on the top of a

hill that was very steep. Our directions told us that the castle is at the bottom of the hill. Sounds simple. As we proceeded down the hill we came to some trees that are in the middle of the road. Every town has something. Vegreville has a giant egg. Mundare has a sausage. Here they have two trees in the middle of the road. Maureen thinks we should turn but I think we can just fit around this obstruction.

We took the left side of the trees and proceeded with caution as we couldn’t really see what was on the other side.

Yea! We did not die.

More street going down the very steep hill and straight into the Castle. We were so happy. It had been a day filled with excitement. We parked the car for two days and went in to check in.

The Castle was built in 1750 and was impressive. Lots of stone with its own private beach. Inside was all dark wood, old paintings and antiques everywhere. The owner Ann gave us our room which looked over the back of the house but Maureen wanted to look at the bay in the front so she arranged that we got a different room. I am a quick settler so by the time she told me that we had a new room I had already unpacked my things and needed to repack. The new room was much larger with bigger beds and a spectacular view of the bay.

Ah! - Now this is Ireland, The many many changing colours of the hills and water. Out of the Car for a few days.

After an hour or two of just relaxing we decided to put on our raincoats, it was raining again, and walk to the little store, Donovan's, and pick up a few things. It was almost at the top of the street we just came down and had an interesting assortment of things. Being the only store in town it caters to everybody’s requirements. We found Tayto Chips, Tayto Popcorn, McVitie's Biuscuits (Maureen got very excited about these as she loves them and can't find them in Canada) and postcards. The evening had become very misty grey but it was not cold just damp.

Maureen found the phone booth out on the street and tried her card again but no luck there. It was very frustrating. She bought an Irish phone card that doesn’t seem to work in Irleand.

We went for dinner to Maryanne's the only restaurant in town. By the time we got to the restaurant there were already a few people there. We tried a Smithwick's beer which is. we found out. pronuounced 'smidicks'. a lovely beer if I do say so,

Teresa our waitress seemed a little quick with us at first but she turned out to be a sweetheart.

The owner of the Restarant had a son who was having a birthday party and Teresa was going to be doing the face painting at the party. She was trying to convince him to be spiderman or a puppy because those were the only faces she could do really well. she kept calling him 'Pet' and he kept looking at other designs. It was really rather funny .

Maureen had a steak the size of Texas and I had Roasted Vegetable with mushroom sauce pasta that was lovely and they brought the vegetable side dishes out in side dishes. The food was great. In the summer the population swells with tourists but there are only about 200 people in the town who stay year round so everyone here knows everyone else. Very friendly town. We were so full we could not eat dessert so decided we would come back the next day and only have dessert for lunch. on our waddle home we ran into a man who called the weather 'darty'. I believe that he was saying it was dirty weather, all misty rain like it was. by the time we got back to the castle it was raining a little harder so we stayed in and settled in very quickly for a good night sleep in our very comfortable beds. Maureen had the giant four poster bed that made her almost disappear, it seemed so large. I had one of the other two beds in the room which although not as large as Maureen's was just as comfortable.

Going to Skibereen.

We looked at the map for a while trying to find a route down to Skibereen that would not take us back through Cork. No more Big cities for us for a while. We were going into the country.

We went through Tower and stopped at a gas station to verify our directions. They were very helpful. They gave us two different sets of directions in two different directions.

Off we went to find the N71. We found the N22. When we did find the N71 we did a high five.

A traffic circle with no sign for the N71 had us a little confused but we made the right choice. The next traffic circle was really big, the largest one we had seen since beginning our trip and there were signs but they were real bad. They put the sign just down the road that you wanted to take. Back to a single lane highway after that and then it was a double lane for about one minute. Maureen says ‘It’s a reward for getting through that crap hole! Then a double but slow lane again for about one minute.

On the side of the road is a Tourists calming sign, gee, I wonder what the heck they are talking about. They make you crazy on the roads and then tell you where you can become calm again? Another circle and we go straight ahead.

We are getting used to the circles and looking for signs in odd places. We start singing Skinabarinkadinkadinka Skinnabarinkadoo.

At 1:05 we pass Innisshannon but the clock in the car says its 1:25? Innishshannon is a very pretty village where you can picnic down by the river just outside of town.

In Bandon their clock says it is 1:31 and our car clock says it is 1:36? Bandon is a bigger town with a lovely older section.

At 1:44 our time, there was rain and a sign that said Blackspot. Does that mean there was an accident there?

At 1:49 we went through Ballinscarth, which has a purple tavern. We admire the cows in the fields after Ballinscarth and pass the Lisselan Golf Club.

Just outside of Clonakilty there were big trees and a big truck. The traffic circle here was actually very nice with good signs. There was a smallish tide flats and inlet. The road was very zig-zag through town and when a Y in the road came up with no sign we took the road more traveled and it all worked out well.

Lissavaird is in a valley and has the Pike Bar that is yellow. Quite pretty and the sun came out almost.

Roscaberry is in a big valley with a big bridge on a big bay. Nice town with swans.

After Roscaberry came another encounter with Irish cows and ‘such fresh country air’.

Connamaugh had harness racing on Sunday at 230 but we couldn’t go, as we would not be there.

Next was Leap Inlet with pretty trees and forests and hills and a very bumpy road.

We got to Skibereen at about 2 in the afternoon. It is also very pretty with old streets and new and it was bigger than we thought it would be. We looked for signs to Castletownshend and found them right away. That can mean that either the signs were good or we are getting used to looking all over the place for any sign. I believe it was the former. From Skibereen the roads to Castletownshend become narrower if that is possible and it was starting to rain. We saw a bicycle sign and at one point Maureen tried to use her right hand to change gears as she wanted to slow down but she figured it out pretty quick.

The Grounds and the Fern Garden

We left the castle and bought our souvenirs. Postcards of course, a picture of me kissing the stone , a book about the castle and a few odd knick-knacks. Maureen bought the same but without the picture or book.

We were armed with a brochure that told us of some of the things we could see.

Maureen wanted to go and see the fern garden and I thought ‘I don’t really want to go and look at ferns.

I’ve seen ferns. I lived in BC where there are lots of ferns’. But I said lets see the grounds first, hoping that we would run out of time and not have to go. I know, I'm Very selfish and mean.

So we went to look at the manor house. When we got to the house we found out that there was a tour every hour and a half but we would have had to wait for 45 minutes so we decided to forgo the tour of the house and just do the grounds.

They were very nice. An interesting start was the walk through an archway in the hedge.

This brought us to a wide lawn that graced the back of the house, with a view down to the lake. I could imagine sitting in the drawing room looking at that view.

Very Peaceful. A sundial on a path, although the sun was not out at that moment, was an interesting lawn ornament.

Side lawns with sinuous walks through a shrubbery containing rhododendrons that were 30 feet tall invited us to wander.

Now not that long ago I thought a shrubbery was a bush.

I have since learned that a shrubbery is a planting of some 6 to 8 feet in depth with the shorter shrubs in the front gradually increasing in height to the tallest plants in the back. This would line a winding gravel path and offer the onlooker quiet picturesque perspectives while providing privacy from the outside world. You have to love Jane Austen. I belong to the Jane Austen Society back home and so learned about landscaping in her time at one of our meetings. How fun!

We loved the variety of plants and the rhodos were magnificent. We paused to get a few photos to show how really large they were.

Some people would say 'but you are both short so that makes the rhodos look bigger'. Well yes we are admittedly short only 5 ft 2 inches, but we are not Leprechauns. No,we are not that short.

Then we wandered down towards the stables. We did not get there. A little sign that said 'Private Road' made us pause and wonder if we had somehow turned the wrong way.

We knew that we had permission to go to the stables and that the manor house was a private residence that opened its doors to the public, but for what ever reason we did not want to cross the line of the "Private Road" sign.

So we turned and went another route entirely. Past trees that were huge and obviously old. Through woods and past fields.

Maureen really wanted to see the fern garden so we found the right road and went to see the ferns.

The road was wet and lined with wild garlic. The aroma was very strong. Giant cedar trees lined both sides and made it seem very quiet and wild.

We past the ice house, we knew what it was as there was a sign, and a few other ruined buildings, almost completely grown over with brush.

The road became a path all twisty and hilly and wood chipped.

We went over a little rise and there appeared a most wondrous sight.

The Fern garden was magic. Ferns towered over us and around us at all levels to create a truly Cretaceous experience.

Where had these come from? How did they live here?

It was marvelous. I was now very glad indeed that Maureen had insisted that we go. I will tell everyone I know who is going to see Blarney about the Fern Garden.

What a great surprise. By the time we were finished wandering around and taking lots of photos of Giant ferns, stone benches tucked into quiet corners and statues semi hidden in watery grottos, the

sun had come out and it was getting quite warm.

We wandered back up to the manor house by a different route and found that it had gotten quite busy with tourists. Seemed the tour buses had started arriving .

I did tell people that I saw about going to see the fern garden but they said that they only had so much time and so probably would not get to see it.

We were so glad that we had decided to travel in our own rented vehicle as it gave us the freedom to stay and explore where ever we wanted.

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.