Day 39 Wednesday 29 June 2016

A very lazy late start at 9.15am, we are certainly not used to this. Just as we leave Killarney the rain pours down, it is still a pleasant drive through the countryside & rain is what makes the place so green (we are starting to think like the Irish). Ballymakeery has a nicely preserved castle with some old cannons out the front on the High Street as we drive slowly through town. Our first stop is at Blarney Castle, just outside the city of Cork. As we pull up the rain clears & as we walk up to the castle the sun comes out & we walk in sunshine the whole time (it was really warm in Ireland). This iteration of Blarney Castle was completed in 1446 and is renowned for the kissing of the Blarney Stone. There are various versions of what the Blarney Stone is & where it came from, however, that doesn’t stop the thousands of people queuing up the flights of stairs & waiting patiently for hours to kiss the stone & gain the gift of eloquence. If you are already blessed with the gift of the gab & kiss the stone you will lose it (some of our fellow passengers went up, they said it is like a factory conveyor belt, you are held while you kissing the stone but it happens so quickly you haven’t really got time to look or even to get a proper photo). The queue for the Blarney Stone is the full 4 floors & out the front door & moving very slowly. Tereza & I decide to give the Blarney Stone a miss & instead walk around the gardens.

The gardens are absolutely beautiful, laid out well with good paths & lots of interesting plants & trees. We are fascinated by a curiously shaped Western Red Cedar that is around 100 years old & has huge bent branches low to the ground. Behind Blarney Castle is Blarney House, a beautiful building that is also open to the public (we would have had to wait about 10 minutes to start a guided tour). We are time poor so have to miss out on looking through it. We visit the old stables & these are very well preserved, the hay loft is now a gift store & part of the stables is a café. We then walk across into the “Rock Close”, said to be the site of an ancient druidic settlement and a truly beautiful place. We have a close look & walk into what is called the “Witch’s Kitchen”, apparently once the home of the very first Irish cave dwellers. It reminded us of how the shelters at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands were constructed.

Nearby is an ancient Druid Circle & a Sacrificial Altar, all surrounded by lush ferns & covered in thick moss, it really is a special untamed looking garden here. Our walk continues & we pass a monstrous Sitka Spruce, 145 feet tall & surrounded by other tall pine species. We continue on down to the Blarney River & cross a couple of small bridges then follow the river along to the exit of the estate. It really is a glorious walk, we hardly see a soul, not that many people look at anything but Blarney Castle.

Our next stop is at the port city of Cobh for lunch. Cobh has the largest natural harbour in Ireland & is notable for the sheer numbers of Irish people that emigrated through this port. Another claim to fame is that Cobh was the last port that the ship Titanic called at before its fatal crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. The ship Luisitania was also sunk offshore from Cobh Harbour in the 1^st World War & Cobh was the city where the survivors & the victims were brought to. Cobh Harbour is also the current base of the Irish Navy, with 4 warships at dock. We stopped for lunch on a park bench in the waterfront, John F Kennedy Park. A nice park with an elegant gazebo & a pair of ancient cannons, one captured from Russia during the Crimea War & made in 1794. We walk along the short High Street & admire the many planters of very colourful flowers, they are everywhere on the streets & hanging off houses & bridges etc. (the Irish & the Scottish are very clever with these planter boxes, most probably they don’t even have to water them, they get enough rain). The small fishing boat harbour has a small sorry collection of old boats, all needing lots of care & attention. The cathedral towers over the town & harbour. The old railway station has been restored & converted into a visitor information centre, café & museum on the Titanic.

After we leave Cobh there are more great views & scenery as we drive on towards the old city of Waterford, an old Viking port. After checking in to the old Dooley’s Hotel on The Quay we are met by our guide Tom & head off on a walking tour of the old part of Waterford. Our first stop is the ruins of the old Black Friar Abbey & an interesting explanation of when & how it was built & its changes over the years.  Our next stop is a large shopping centre where an archaeological excavation was conducted for 5 years before the shopping centre could be built on top of an ancient Viking settlement & burial ground. There were thousands of artefacts recovered, examined & catalogued plus hundreds of ancient skeletons found. More history as we pass many buildings constructed during the 1700s at the height of Waterford’s industry & wealth. Grey Friars Abbey is the next ruin we stop at, integrated into the more modern buildings, ending up as an old people’s home before its eventual ruin. The Abbey was the site of the marriage of the English King Strongbow & the Irish Princess Aolfe in August 1170. Our last stop is at the old Viking Tower called Reginald’s Tower in honour of the Viking who was the founder of Waterford in 914. (Strongbow & Aolfe’s wedding reception was held in there). This tower is one of six still standing in Waterford & has a replica Viking longboat on display below the tower. The planks are even held together by wooden pegs & the ship was modelled on a ship dated from around 1050 discovered during archaeological excavations in Waterford.

The tour ended, we walk slowly back along the waterfront to our hotel before getting ourselves organised & having our dinner in the hotel. Tereza is starting to get a taste for Guinness beer here. Another great day.

Before our walking tour started Tom explained the history of Waterford in the hotel’s meeting room, he picked different people out to represent certain Kings & Queens from the pages of history to explain who fought who & why all the marriages took place. Unbelievable but Ron got once again picked, this time as Strongbow & I was the beautiful Irish Princess Aolfe (who had to marry him). They all died, killing each other or unexplained drownings or horrible diseases except for Aolfe – lucky me!!!