We didn’t want to leave Kilkenny! Our one gripe about this trip is that we were only given 1 day in kilkenny. We wanted more. We NEEDED a more. We had so many other tours/sights/walks to see OUTSIDE of the city that we didn’t have enough time to wander around like we enjoy.
Our first stop was Kilkenny Castle. It’s a medieval castle that has been restored over the years by the office of public works. It was interesting to see how the royal families of Ireland lived. The grounds of the castle are now a park that locals use daily. It was a wonderful first stop to our long day of Irish History!
We walked across town to St. Canice’s Cathedral. We took the self guided tour and learned about the church of Ireland & the cathedrals history. The history of the church dates back to the 6th century. One of its “claims to fame” is that the burning of witches was believed to have started by the bishop & spread quickly around the world – including Salem, Ma. It was a short little tour that ended our time in Kilkenny. We dropped into a bakery called slice of heaven, ordered 2 cupcakes then hit the road to the Rock of Cashel.
The Rock of Cashel is known as the “keeper of the faith.” Originally made to be a castle but was later gifted to the church. It had been used as a place of worship for the church of Ireland since that time. Unfortunately when the bubonic plague hit Ireland, it whipped out more than 1/3 of the population and the Castle/fort/chapel fell into decay. The office of Public Works has taken on the project of restoring/salvaging what it can of the structure. The scenery around the Rock is breathtaking. It’s at the top of the hill and the view goes on for kilometers. The weather was great so we hung around to soak in as much sun and view as possible before we jumped back in the car to head to Co. Cork & the Blarney Castle.
Word to the wise – Ireland has horrible street signage! There are no signs on street but rather on buildings – if you’re lucky. Hopefully you’re on the right hand of God if you plan to drive through a town or GET LOST like we did! Long story short, the directions we had gave MAJOR roadways NAMES rather than the NUMBERS the department of transportation uses as indicators!!
I.e. Our Directions: turn right on western parkway
Ireland Road signs: N20, N27, N39
Drive around looking for WESTERN PARKWAY.
30 min later – NO WPkwy!
Finally, we pulled into a McDonalds, connected to WiFi & learned that N20 was in fact Western parkway!
Now before you go and judge us & say we aren’t very good at reading directions. The directions we had were just words no pictures to at least assist us on where we could be! But, we are both on the RIGHT SIDE & it all worked out and we headed towards Blarney Castle!
If only we wouldn’t have gotten lost because we certainly needed more time to take in all that is Blarney Castle! We toured the castle and kissed the stone (more to come on that) but the grounds themselves were acres on acres on acres! The walk around the compound takes 1.5hrs. We got there an hour before close so we had to hit the big spots.
The castle was by far my favorite castle we have visited thus far. The way the explained the castle history and the stone had a twist of humor that kept you engaged and wanting to learn more. My favorite part was when the tour began, you read about the famous people who came before you to visit and kiss the stone and told you not to worry by how narrow the halls and staircases were, that at least we weren’t Winston Churchill & Oliver Hardy going up together (see cartoon). So the stairs were incredibly small and narrow, they weren’t lying. The castle itself is a bit run down but not as bad as the others we have seen. When we finally reached the top we were greeted with astounding views of the grounds and surround city. After a few selfies high above the world we made our way to the Blarney Stone!
Now, legend has it that anyone who kisses the stone would be given the gift of eloquent speech. I headed towards the spot, was told by an 18 year old kid to lay back, grab onto 2 iron rods and drop my body off the side of this huge castle! YEA OK! Naturally, I said no and made Bowen go first! He did! He lived! And that’s when I realized they had bars underneath where you lean over to catch anyone if in fact they fell. Bars I hadn’t seen prior to that instance. I immediately lay down, lean back and SMOOOOOCH! I can now say I have scratched another number off my Bucket List -#27
Once we purchased the proof that we kissed the stone, we decided to not waste a single minute of the grounds being open. We walked the waterfalls, caves and gardens. We stumbled across the “poison garden” full of plants believed to have harmful side affects. Some of the plants in the garden were Tobacco, hydrangea, deadly nightshade, cannabis & poison ivy. At the end of the garden there was a sign that stated while these plants aren’t dangerous in their natural state (other than poison ivy) it’s when WE tamper with them that make them dangerous. It was very PSA of them.
The day ended with an hour drive to our last stop for the night in Killarney. We checked into Maggie O’s b&b, walked to dinner then crashed! Both our brain and body got a workout that day & we loved it!
Sláinte!
a NOLA girl in a Big world 
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