Blarney and an Irish Draught

Venturing out to County Cork, the Blarney Castle and House are home to the famous magical stone, once kissed, supposed to gift the kisser with the gift of eloquence. Where the stone came from is typically Irish . . . some say it was the Lia Fái, see an earlier post this week on the Hill of Tara . . . .hmmm. Now, the fun part of Ireland really is in the mischievous, the story-telling, the delicate varnishing of the truth, known as blarney, versus baloney . . . truly just horseshit.

So I share with you a view from the top of Blarney Castle and a chestnut resident of Blarney House, a Scottish baronial-style mansion that was built on the grounds in 1874.

The day finished up with another kind of Irish Draught in Abbeyliex, in an old pub called Morrisey's. It first opened as a grocery in 1775, when it started life as a thatched one-storey house and in 1880 it was rebuilt as the lofty two-storey premises we see today, with high shelf-lined walls and a pot belly stove to gather round on cold days.