Blarney
Castle
*When Cormac McCarthy was
King of Munster, he sent five thousand men to assist Robert the Bruce in his
defeat of the English at Bannockburn in 1314. Legend has it that the king
presented half of the Stone of Scone as a gift to McCarthy in gratitude. This
half of stone is now known as the infamous Blarney Stone. Dermot McCarthy built
the Blarney Castle in 1446 with the stone built into the castle where it can
now be kissed. For over 200 years, people have been climbing the steps to kiss
the Blarney Stone to gain the gift of eloquence. In the past, people were held
by their ankles and lowered head first to kiss the stone. Today, one sits and leans
backward while holding onto an iron railing to kiss the stone. The load-bearing
construction system was used to build Blarney castle since each stone had to be
stacked to form the castle. The Blarney Castle is a romantic style shell system
castle with a tower on one side. As you ascend the tower, the steeper and narrower
it gets. People with claustrophobia would not like this. As the walls around
you seem to get closer and closer the stairs just keep winding farther and
farther up. Along the way though there are different rooms. One room had a
Murder Hole in it. Murder Holes were made to shoot arrows down or pour boiling
liquids over the tops of unwelcomed visitors. The windows in the tower were
tiny slits in the stone that you could barely look out of. After I kissed the
stone and descended down another set of stairs that were much wider and less
claustrophobic. The castle is an amazing structure to see although it has
become more touristy in the past few years because of the Blarney Stone. 
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| About to kiss the Blarney Stone |
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| Blowin' Kisses After the Stone |
Ross
Castle
*Built by O’Donoghue Mor in
the 15th century, Ross Castle sits on the edge of Killarney’s lower
lake. Legend has it that O’Donoghue was sucked from the upper window into the
lake, along with his horse and is in a deep sleep under the waters of Lough
Leane keeping an eye on things. Every seven years on the first morning of May,
he rises from the lake on his white horse and circles the lake. If anyone
catches a glimpse of him they are to have good fortune for the rest of their
lives. Ross Castle was the last stronghold in Munster to hold out against
Cromwell, although General Ludlow took it in 1652. Ross Castle is one of
Ireland’s best medieval Irish Chieftain strongholds. The castle is a shell
system that used load-bearing construction. The builders of the castle had to
stack and pile each stone to build Ross Castle. Layer upon layer of stone until
finally they had a castle. Windows near the bottom of the castle were just thin
vertical slits to prevent intruders trying to get in but at the same time
allowing people inside to aim and fire guns at attackers. The top windows were
larger to allow light inside. Although I enjoyed visiting Ross Castle, the day
we went was quite chilly with the wind and we were on a time crunch, so it made
it a little harder to enjoy the incredible castle.
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| Lough Leane Lake |
CastleRoss
Hotel
*Our weekend trip to
Killarney involved us lodging at the Castlerosse Hotel. It was built in 1960 by
Beatrice Grosvenor, on the site where the Royal Victoria Hotel stood in the 19th
century. Lady Grosvenor past away in 1985 and the hotel was acquired by its
present owner. It has its own pub in the hotel called Mulligan’s Pub, which has
great live music every night. On Friday night, the gentleman singing gave us
Georgia girls a shout out and played our song of the trip, “Galway Girl.” The
Grosvenor Restaurant is where we ate breakfast and dinner while we stayed
there. The view as you sit and eat is amazing as you look out over the Lakes of
Killarney and Magillicuddy Reeks, Ireland’s highest mountain range. The
breakfast was buffet and the dinners were plated. I truly enjoyed the plated
dinners because each dish they serve is a masterpiece. The way I see it is you
eat the food with your eyes before you ever taste it. So if it looks bad,
you’re not going to want to eat it. Not only do chefs have to make sure it
tastes good but they have to make the dishes colorful and appealing. The
parsley leave added to the plates is for decoration to add another pop of color
to the plate. The actual texture of the food is important as well. When the
sauce around the pasta bake is lumpy and misshapen people might be hesitant but
if its smooth and creamy, they’ll dig right in. Just think if the apple pie
wasn’t frosted with powdered sugar and didn’t have that bit of cream and mint how
plain and boring it would look. Creating culinary dishes is an artwork and the
hotel chefs did wonderful, as everything tasted delightful!
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