Had To Do It

Our driver/guide told us “you know, you could always lie and say you did it. No one would know!”

Every tourist destination has its “must see” or “must do” places. You probably shouldn’t visit San Francisco without visiting Chinatown or Fisherman’s Wharf. Florence, Italy without seeing David, Paris without visiting the Louvre or Notre Dame. You get the idea. So despite it being – in my opinion – possibly the most overrated tourist attraction I’ve ever visited, we decided we couldn’t visit Ireland without “kissing the Blarney Stone.”

Even Rick Steves agrees that it is one of Europe’s Top 10 Tourist Traps. So?

While the castle itself only requires climbing about 125 steps, the whole “experience” involves walking up a fairly steep hill to the spot where the line – which on busy days can be several hours long – begins. The stairway starts off pretty roomy, but gradually spirals tighter and gets narrower the higher you go. Once at the top, there is an assembly line of guides to assist the tourists through the process of removing glasses, cameras, jewelry, etc. Then you lay down on a mat, stretch backwards and try to reach far enough to get your face close to the stone. While in this compromising position they of course take your photo, which they offer at an exorbitant price (yes, we bought them) once you get back down to the bottom.

We decided that we didn’t want to visit Ireland without “Kissing the Blarney Stone.” So now it’s done and is just another thing we won’t need to do again!

We’ve seen A LOT of castles in our travels, and as castles go, Blarney is pretty cool. I mean, who can’t be impressed by a huge stone structure that was constructed in the 10th Century? The grounds and gardens are beautiful and well maintained by current ownership (the castle is privately owned) , and since both of our tours went there, we had time to explore the gardens on our second visit, even though it was rainy that day.

For anyone interested in learning more about Blarney, I found this pretty good article about the castle, its history and present day experience.