On this cool and very rainy day, we traveled by bus a bit northwest from Cork to the village of Blarney. The village name I’m sure gives away that our intent for the day is to visit the world famous Blarney Castle!

We are very prepared for the weather here in Ireland. We have Rain jackets, ponchos, umbrellas, multiple layered clothing and water resistant hiking shoes. So, let it rain Ireland!

We arrived at Blarney and had lunch and nice hot tea at their local pub. We were then ready to weather the weather to visit the Blarney Castle & grounds.

It has sometimes been referred to as a tourist trap in our research, but we found it to be a very worthwhile experience, regardless of if you kiss the stone or not.

We toured the entire ancient castle and eventually reached the top and found the world famous Blarney Stone. Joan had no interest in taking part in the ritual, but Marty could not resist the opportunity to improve on his oral skills, so he took the plunge! He has now gained the “The Gift of the Gab” which Joan thinks was not a skill that needed any improvement 😁

We then walked the gardens and grounds if the Castle, which is very beautiful. We saw some wild life in our departure from the grounds, see if you can find it in one of the photos.

We headed back to Cork and enjoyed another nice evening of good food and some local Irish music!