Kiss the Rock

The legend is that if you kiss the Blarney Stone you will gain the gift of “blarney” – elocution, flattery, or just plain gap. If nothing else, kissing the stone can be a memorable experience. Not as memorable as is was years ago when people were lowered by their ankles over the battlements atop Blarney Castle to kiss the bottom of the stone. Today, a section of stone behind the battlements has been removed and two steel bands added to prevent tourists from falling through that hole. Still, there definitely is the strong perception of danger, even with hand holds and an assistant who helps tourists lay back, out and under the stone 90 feet above the ground.

There are a number of stories about the origin of the stone. One proposes the stone is a piece of a religious artifact brought back from the Crusades that was stolen for a period by the Scots and then returned and awarded to the builder of the castle by Robert the Bruce. Or, maybe it is a piece of the Scottish coronation “Stone of Scone,” though it is geologically different. The more prominent story is that the builder of Blarney Castle, Cormac McCarthy, was involved in a law suit. The evening before the court date (possibly after some heavy drinking) he appealed to a mythical Irish goddess for help in arguing the case. She supposedly told him to kiss the first large stone he saw in the morning before going to court. He did so, won the argument and case, and hence incorporated the stone into the parapet of the castle.

The following to photos are closeups taken from the ground 90 feet below of a reclined tourist (in red) about to kiss the stone. To the left in the last one is the left shoe of the assistant helping to steady the tourist. If you visit Blarney Castle and want to kiss the stone, be prepared to climb a circular staircase that has low head clearance.