Kissing the Stone of Eloquence

There is a legend in Ireland that if you kiss a certain stone, it will give you the gift of eloquence. A great number of people say that if you believe that, you are full of the blarney.

Well, enough of puns. I don’t profess to use puns very wisely.

When visiting Ireland, most people say that you must visit the site of this stone of eloquence. You really don’t have to, but if you do, you should bring back some proof that you were there. I did. I wasn’t going to, but I decided, why not. So I paid my money, got the two pictures and the pictures have me very red in the face. I’m not even sure when the pictures were taken. I just know that when my brother and I went to collect our pictures, they were ready for us.

In the past, when I thought of kissing the Blarney Stone, I thought that it was a stone at ground level and there would be no real effort to kiss it. Boy, was I wrong! The first thing that you have to do is get into the property. Yes, there is a fee for kissing the stone. Then, you have a distance to walk to get to the castle itself. For those of you who have mobility problems, it can be exhausting. Okay, now you reach the castle. It’s time to enter the castle and then climb the stairs. Did I forget to tell you that there are stairs? These are stone stairs and it’s a circular staircase. However, there are landings at each level. I have no idea how many landings there are. These are good for a short rest before continuing up. I stopped at one landing, thinking that I would never be able to make it to the top. I then learned that I only had about two more landings to go and I would be at the top. I decided that to get that far and not go the rest of the way was not appropriate. As well, until I found out how to get to the stairs going down, I would be going against the flow.

So, I arrived at the top of the castle, and took the time to catch my breath again. My brother arrived shortly after I did, and we joined the line to kiss the stone together.

When you finally get to the stone, as it is mentioned in the website,

“Once upon a time, visitors had to be held by the ankles and lowered head first over the battlements. Today, we are rather more cautious of the safety of our visitors. The Stone itself is still set in the wall below the battlements. To kiss it, one has to lean backwards (holding on to an iron railing) from the parapet walk. The prize is a real one as once kissed the stone bestows the gift of eloquence.”  http://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/kiss-the-blarney-stone

There is actually two people there, one helps you to get into the position to kiss the stone and the other takes the pictures. When the person helping you need some help, the gentleman taking the pictures will assist. There are two pictures taken, one either getting up or getting ready to kiss the stone and the other while you are kissing the stone. Once you are finished, you follow the parapet around until you get to the staircase (once again circular) going down.

There is more to Blarney Castle than just kissing the stone. Even though I had exhausted myself, my interest was caught. I saw the sign “Poison Garden” and I had to know what that entailed. I did go through two parts of the garden before I started heading towards the exit to go find the bus or somewhere to eat or get a drink. I do want to go back to Blarney Castle. The next time, though, I will not be going to kiss the stone. I want to go wander the property to see everything that is there as I think that I saw maybe a tenth of what they had to offer.

As we were there at the end of April, there were no real shops to be able to get something to drink near the Castle itself. I actually got all the way over to Blarney Woolen Mills before I was able to get a drink. I can’t even remember if I ate something as well. I think that I did. Oh, well, if I didn’t it was because I wasn’t hungry.

One thing that I did not mention earlier was that our group divided up for this stop. Some of us when to Blarney Castle while the rest of the group went to Blarney Woolen Mills. We then all met the bus in the parking lot for the Woolen Mills.

We found that at every stop, we had to wait for some one or a couple of people before we could continue on our way. This stop was no different.