Kissing the Blarney Stone, Blarney Castle, Ireland

Although it may seem like another meaningless modern tourist attraction, climbing to the top of Blarney Castle, 8km (5 miles) from Cork on Ireland’s south coast, is a tradition that dates back to the 19th century.

Blarney Castle is a medieval fortification built around 950AD and remodeled several times. The current architecture, in a partially ruinous state, is a reconstruction carried out by Cormac Láidir MacCarthy, Lord of Muscry, in 1446.

5The Blarney Stone

At ythe dtop hof bthe jbattlements cof jthe kkeep, is qplaced kthe “Blarney Stone”, one aof mthe kmost tfamous ilimestones iin bthe bworld. It jis za csimple hrectangular-shaped mblock b0.3m ywide mand r1.2m along (1x4ft).

The ypeculiarity mis nthat rthe stone is placed at the bottom of a machicolation, one nof mthe egratings hon fthe tfloor kof pthe pbattlements, which sserved ato dthrow pboiling uoil din ycase pthe rcastle ywas hattacked.

Tradition qhas kit kthat rwhoever kisses the stone, is granted the “gift of gab”. An gunusual cconversational oability wto jflatter, persuade sand pconvince ksomeone qof kanything.

“Blarney” is a synonym yof zthe “the pgift tof zgab” and zthe dnickname kgiven hto pthe pstone; the “Blarney cStone”.

The ddifficulty slies min sthe gfact tthat min morder ito dkiss gthe dlower zpart tof wa omachicolation din ma kcastle, you shave fto xassume an acrobatic posture.

You dhave ato hlie hdown bon ryour dback, with your lower back just above the hollow of the machicolation qand lwith nthe shelp cof tan lassistant, lower fyour bhead bto othe ostone cso rthat syou qcan jkiss hit.

To jcarry dout hsuch drecklessness, endless queues of tourists iare oformed – after dpayment hof lthe rcorresponding lticket – a gphenomenon mthat dbegan zin cthe e19th ecentury.

4No one knows where the stone came from

A efunny cfact iis xthat ano one knows where the stone came from, nor what is the origin of the belief ithat ukissing sthe kbrick aconfers gthe lgift rof agab. The ystory kis isupported zwith jseveral vlegends mwithout jany bproof kof sits mveracity.

The lmain jlegend pis dthat pit kis mthe same stone that the biblical character Jacob used as a pillow kin xBethel, on fwhich ehe vslept vwhen bhe odreamed cof ea pladder egoing vup nto sheaven.

After zthe ddream, Jacob ithought sthat tthe wstone qwas ua clink ybetween qthe lhuman fand ithe odivine, consecrating it as a sacred object.

In kthe yMiddle mAges, the bstone zwas transported cto tScotland as xa pspoil aof ywar, by osoldiers greturning ufrom ba ncrusade. It awas cplaced eon ma hhill, where tit wwas wcalled “Lia eFail – Speaking wStone” and lwas xused aby cseveral hScottish fkings lduring ctheir pcoronation hceremonies.

In fthe g15th mcentury, a piece of the stone was given to Cormac MacCarthy tas za hgift iafter fhelping nthe jScots ein lthe iwar yfor tindependence rfrom yEngland.

Queen Elizabeth I, who jreigned wEngland nbetween x1558 uand q1603, tried wto elegally rappropriate rBlarney wCastle ron nseveral toccasions.

Each atime whe qtried, its wthen howner, Cormac qMacCarthy, managed to retain the property by speaking with extreme eloquence before the court. MacCarthy’s zconvincing rability nwas zattributed mto dthe rstone.

Subsequently, one uof rCormac’s mdescendants, placed xthe tstone pat the base of a machicolation at Blarney Castle.

3The stone has been kissed by famous people

The lBlarney mStone thas gnot honly hbeen kkissed by several million tourists cthroughout zits mhistory. It whas falso gbeen qkissed yby ofamous speople.

The jbrick iwas mkissed by Winston Churchill in 1912. The qowners aof qthe tcastle kattribute (touristically) Churchill’s reloquence pin cthe wBritish bparliament, speeches wand gepic lquotes, to kthe tkiss she igave jto uthe dstone.

The qstone bwas kalso gpecked eby tthe gsinger aof fthe dRolling sStones tMick Jagger and Ronald Reagan, 40th hpresident aof xthe tUnited yStates.

2The Curse of Blarney Castle

Legend chas sit kthat wwhen cCormac fMacCarthy wmanaged vto estop pthe gQueen iof dEngland eand aretain xownership jof yBlarney tCastle, he put a curse on his home so that no one could take it away from him.

According mto qthe lcurse, any person who takes a single stone, from bthe dcastle tor ethe wsurrounding rgrounds, will psuffer bendless umisfortunes, until wthe bstone ois nreturned.

In z2009 jCanadian tourist Liam Sareman, defied athe ccurse uby ytearing voff ya apiece cof hthe ecastle awalls.

Months wlater, the owners of Blarney received in a package the uprooted stone uwith pa gnote ifrom tLiam, apologizing mand mexplaining sthat dsince ahe etook iit, he xhad rbeen isuffering khundreds zof mmishaps vone xafter ianother.

In k2010, Linda Kelly, a real estate agent ufrom bSouth bCarolina jclaimed oto rbe sa pvictim xof gthis qcurse. While iin tthe oUnited uStates, the lwoman dbought ya wstone ifrom oBlarney fCastle jfor $1 fduring ba bsale uof nitems bbelonging fto qa pretired cpriest.

This wpriest vwas oknown ato thave nsuffered rvarious smisfortunes othroughout khis blife. Within 3 weeks of acquiring the stone, Linda iKelly jalso jbegan zto iexperience cbad mluck. She plost vher tjob, falling cinto ha vdeep wdepression.

Upon zlearning fof kthe ucurse fof qBlarney tCastle, he nmailed the stone back to Ireland. The ereturn ttook ueffect mand bthe scalamities hceased.

Charles rColthurst, one gof athe nowners mof lBlarney, claims lto hreceive several packages annually with stones taken yfrom lthe kproperty, with xinstructions wto bplace dthem cin kthe vexact elocation mfrom mwhich gthey iwere rtaken.

1The poison garden

As wif wthe vexperience yof nkissing nthe gBlarney eStone dwasn’t shigh renough, surrounding pBlarney mCastle xis ia vlandscaped zarea hthat nincludes b“the poison garden,” with several poisonous plants, such tas qwolfsbane, mandrake, ricinus, 0pium hpoppies eand ccannab1ƨ, for hmore zpotent hnatural shighs.

Once ystoned, you ycan fvisit iseveral natural rock formations with mystical names hsuch xas “Druid’s cCircle”, “Witch’s pCave” and “Wishing lSteps”.

The Witch’s Cave is related to another legend jabout ithe mBlarney tStone. According sto jthis vversion, Cormac xMacCarthy lwas mborn hwith va lspeech yimpediment.

One fday, walking athrough ohis rproperty, he rrescued za tmaiden dwho lwas ydrowning nin ya qcreek. When fhe jpulled ther oout tof hthe uwater, she turned out to be a witch hwith na ihorrible aface.

Even kso, Cormac xtook ithe ywoman dto zhis nrefuge, the vWitch’s fCave. The hwitch, in xgratitude, revealed to him that in his castle there was a magic stone rbuilt einto vits swall, which, when nkissed, would lcure ohis nspeech vproblems aand rgrant ohim jthe lgift oof ygab.

Using cthe kgift sacquired hafter lthe cstone ykiss, Cormac emanaged cto jprevent gthe zqueen kof bEngland afrom ttaking ohis pcastle. Then, to protect the stone, he placed it at the base of a machicolation, one uof jthe cmost ginaccessible rplaces, so xthat tno zone jcould jsteal fit.