2 Jul 2024, Tuesday

 2 Jul 2024, Tuesday

Prioritized Daily Task 

Porter Hobbs' 16th Birthday

Travel towards Blarney Castle -N22

Blarney Castle-open 9-6:00  follow signs to Limerick N20, 7 km turn left (signpost Blarney)   Blarney Castle is a tower house, a type of fortification built by Gaelic lords and the Anglo-Irish between the 15th and 17th centuries. Tower houses are typically four or five stories tall with one or two main chambers, plus several ancillary chambers on each floor.

Blarney Woollen Mills-open 9:30-6:00 The Square, Shean Lower, Blarney, Co. Cork, T23 H63K, Ireland

Cork City, 1 hour to walk around and see the ruins of Macroom Castle in downtown center -food tents on Tuesday-

Lodges 1,2,3 Curragh House Lodges, Riverstick , Kinsale, Kinsale, Ireland

Excellent Location — 9.6

Confirmation number:4866790365d

PIN:2939

Debbie and I were up early, had prayer, showered, and went down for breakfast.  We checked out of the Heights Hotel.  I drove and Debbie was the navigator.  We stopped in Blarney Village and visited the castle, home, gardens, and farm. The original stone structure was built in 1210.  The current keep was built by Cormac MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty, a cadet branch of the Kings of Desmond, and dates from 1446.  Blarney Castle is an unusually large tower house, and it comprises at least two towers – the second one was added in the 1500s.  The walls are 18 feet thick at the base, gradually sloping inwards as they rise.  The term 'blarney', meaning beguiling but misleading talk,  No one has ever died kissing the Blarney Stone, leaning over the tower backward, upside down, and kissing a stone that is supposed to be the stone.  The castle was occupied by Cormac MacCarthy, King of Munster, who is said to have provided 4,000 men to support Robert the Bruce against the English at the Battle of Bannockburn. It is alleged Robert the Bruce gave half the Stone of Scone to MacCarthy in appreciation for troop support sent to Ireland.  No one really knows the history of the Blarney stone at the top of the keep. 

Blarney House and Gardens in Blarney, County Cork, is a Scottish Baronial mansion and was built in 1874.  The current owner of the estate is Sir Charles St John Colthurst.

There is a garden of poisonous plants.  There are two rivers, one running north and south, the other running east and west.  The one running north and south literally runs under the larger one running east and west.

We left Blarney and drove to BestDrive in Cork.  The manager checked the air pressure.  Each tire had 40 psi in each tire.  He let the air out until it was 34 psi in each tire.  He reset the tire's air pressure indicator.  It went off and stayed off. 

We drove to Curragh House Lodges in Riverstick, Kinsale, and met Veronica, her husband, and two of their boys.  We got gas and drove to Kirby Korner in Ballinhassig and had dinner.  Afterward, we went next door to a grocery store and bought food for a couple of days.  We came back to our apartment, Debbie finished getting her mother's home sold and the WiFi she had been paying for since December last year straightened out.  Debbie and I had prayer before going to bed.

The Blarney House and gardens

                                                         river running north and south                                

Hemlock Plant in the garden

                                           The Barney Stone at the top of the castle people kiss

                       The walls of the castle are 18 feet thick at the base and get narrower toward the top

          500-year-old Yew Tree (some survive up to 2,000 years), the needles or leaves are highly toxic  

  Araucaria araucana - Monkey Puzzle Tree, (climbing the spiny, spiraling branches would be a puzzle even for a monkey)

                                                                      Monkey Puzzle Tree     

                                                            Wildlife in the garden

                                                         Grandpa McAlpin in the fern garden    

                                                              Grandma Debbie McAlpin

The hedges covering rock wall along the side of the roads are cut back but continue to inch their way into the road,  this one is starting to cover the white sideline and pushing traffic closer together

                                              Bridge on the way from Killarney to Blarney

Citroën 2CV 1978 Owned by Philip and Helen from North Yorkshire who stayed at the Heights Hotel

Austin Healy is similar to the one I owned when I worked at Lockheed (mine was red and older, it was made in the 1950s with a positive electrical ground) I had a hard top and Tonneau cover that went with it.
I sold it to Jerry Salters for $300 before I left. for my mission in 1968