Ireland Trip #55: Witches' Garden and Druids

Tom outside Blarney Castle

This is the final blog about our time at Blarney Castle in Cork County, Ireland. After walking though the castle, and covering the ghosts, we walked through the "Witches' Garden."  We'll also tell you about the ancient, native druid peoples that lived there as far back as 200 B.C.
  

Walking around the gardens

THE GARDENS -  Surrounding the castle are extensive gardens. There are paths touring the grounds with signs pointing out the various attractions such as several natural rock formations which have been given fanciful names, such as Druid's Circle, Witch's Cave and the Wishing Steps. The grounds also include a Poison Garden which hosts a number of poisonous plants, including wolfsbane, mandrake, ricin, opium and cannabis. Blarney House, also open to the public, is a Scottish baronial-style mansion that was built on the grounds in 1874.

Add caption

Rob outside of Blarney

There are several gardens throughout the property, and you could literally spend half a day walking around them. There's the "poison garden," the "fern garden," the Arboretum and Pinetum," the Herbaceous border," the Bog garden," and the "Irish Garden." Of course, there's also the "Witches' Garden."


To learn more about them, go to this website, specifically about the gardens: http://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/the-gardens 

      
WHY A WITCHES' GARDEN? -Once we returned from our trip I learned why there was a "Witches' Garden." According to the book "Haunted Ireland," legend has it that an ugly Witch of Blarney gave the famous Blarney Stone to Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, a former inhabitant of Blarney Castle. Apparently, Cormac and the Witch didn't get along because the story goes that the Witch now lies trapped beneath another rock in the castle grounds. Makes you wonder what the witch did!

Druids had their own cave, too!

DRUID HANGOUTS- The Witches' Garden also honored druids, too!  The area was known for druids, so there's even a "Druid's Cave" in the garden. 

Inside the "Witches Kitchen"

WHAT IS A DRUID? -  They were not "tree lovers" as it a common mis-perception here in the U.S. In fact, they were members of the educated, professional class among the Celtic peoples of Gaul, Britain, Ireland, and possibly elsewhere during the Iron Age!!    The druid class included law-speakers, poets and doctors, among other learned professions, although the best known among the druids were the religious leaders. Very little is known about the ancient druids. 

The Druid Csve

THEIR EXISTENCE KNOWN THROUGH OTHER CULTURES - Druids existed before 200 B.C. and they left no written accounts of themselves! The only evidence is a few descriptions left by Greek, Roman, and various scattered authors and artists, as well as stories created by later medieval Irish writers.
 
WHAT DID THEY DO? - They performed animal and even human sacrifice, believed in a form of reincarnation, and held a high position in Gaulish society. Next to nothing is known for certain about their practices, except for the ritual of oak and mistletoe as described by Pliny the Elder.







NEXT: Behind Bars in Cork City

Ireland Trip #53: To Kiss or not? A Local Legend about the Blarney Stone

Next to the Blarney Stone

This blog continues our visit to the famous Blarney Castle and here we'll talk about our decision "To Kiss or not?" when it came to the Blarney Stone. 

TO KISS THE BLARNEY STONE OR NOT - Most of the people who went through the ruins of Blarney Castle were determined to kiss the stone when they got to the top of the castle. Not so for us. 

The Blarney Stone

For one, it was hanging over an opening that led to a 600 foot drop and I'm afraid of heights. Further, they have one guy HOLDING your legs while you get on your back, and slide through the opening and under the stone, to kiss it. There's another guy photographing you as you kiss the stone.


Secondly, we heard that the locals pee on the stone before the castle opens so they can laugh at the tourists who kiss it.. Now, that may not be true, but those Irish are feisty!  So, we took no chances. 

What you hang over to kiss the stone

WINDEX - Yes, there was a bottle of windex and a rag with one of the two employees standing next to the stone and helping people kiss it, but they never used it to clean the stone after people kissed it. We think it was just for show, or they only use it at the end of the night. Then first thing in the morning, before the castle opens, they pee on the stone. 

 NEXT: Blarney Castle's Murder Hole and Ghost  

Ireland Trip #53: Discovering the "Blarney" at Blarney Castle!

Blarney Castle

In this entry of our (9 day) trip to Ireland, we're taking you to the world-famous Blarney Castle, where we learned about
the castle, what "Blarney" really means, and we found out what the "Blarney" is about the attraction itself! Come along!

WHAT IS BLARNEY CASTLE? - Blarney Castle is a medieval stronghold in Blarney, near Cork, Ireland, and the River Martin.  It dates back to 1200, and although earlier fortifications were built on the same spot, the current keep was built by the MacCarthy family of the "Muskerry dynasty," a cadet branch of the Kings of Desmond, and dates from 1446. The castle is basically in ruins. You walk through the ruins to get to the top (and go up cramped, stone, spiral staircases - it must've been tough to be a guard then and run down those stairs with a sword). - **In fact, most of the floors used to be made of wood, and rotted away, allowing you to see all of the floors from the center of the castle.
   Anyway, the entire visit to the castle is basically to direct you to the Blarney Stone.  The Blarney Stone is found among the machicolations of the castle.

the ruins of a room with a fireplace. Wood floors disintegrated

OKAY, SO WHAT IS A "MACHIOLATION"?  - Geez, there are weird words for everything. A (French, machicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall.  In other words, it's a big hole at the top of a castle turret (high up) where hot oil and rocks can be dropped on the heads of would-be invaders.

Looking down into the former kitchen

WHAT DOES KISSING THE BLARNEY STONE MEAN? - The Blarney Stone is actually is a block of Carboniferous limestone that was built into the battlements of Blarney Castle. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of the gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery - read "bull-shitting" people). There are many legends as to the origin of the stone, but some say that it was the Lia Fáil—a magical stone upon which Irish kings were crowned - but no one knows if that's true. The stone was set into a tower of the castle in 1446.


 DISCOVERING THE BLARNEY - Okay, here's the real "blarney." We noticed that there were literally busloads of retired and elderly people who were being transported to Blarney Castle to see the famous Blarney Stone. Awesome, right? Wrong. What you don't learn until you get there, or unless you research it, is that the Blarney Stone sits at the HIGHEST POINT in the castle. To get there, you have to ascend cramped, spiral staircases and go up about 600 feet or so (It could be higher, I'm a poor judge of height because I'm afraid of heights!).
  SO, all of the elderly people who had canes, walkers and wheelchairs (and there were a good number) or had breathing, lung or heart issues (there were a good number) could NOT go up the stairs to see the Blarney stone!
That's a bunch of Blarney.  We wondered why they didn't move the damned stone to the first floor so everyone could see it and enjoy it.  (Yeah, it may have been put there before, but it can be moved - they do that with museum pieces).

Tom in a guard's bedroom

 

NEXT: To Kiss or not? A Local Legend about the Blarney Stone, and a Ghost