History
Blarney Castle (Caisleán na Blarnan) Is one of the largest medieval tower houses in Ireland [1]. Originally built on a rocky outcrop around 1446 by the MacCarthys family, who also built Kilcrea Castle [2], Blarney was a defensive five-storey tower, with a cylindrical building added to the front, in the 18th century [3, 4].
The castle was besieged and captured by the Cromwellian army in 1646 and returned to the MacCarthys family after the Restoration, about two decades later [3].
Subsequently the Boyne battle (1691), where the MacCarthys supported King James II, defeated by King William III, the property passed to Sir James Jeffereyes in 1703 [1, 5]. The Jeffereyes family expanded the tower house by adding a Gothic Georgian mansion and estabilished beautiful ornamental gardens [3-5]. Under the Jeffereyes family, the Blarney village grew with commerce and linen manufacture [5].
The mansion went on fire in 1820 and got mostly destroyed, with only the tower beside the castle surviving [5].
After the Jeffereyes, the Colthurst families became owners of the castle (1846) [1, 5].
One of the main attractions of the castle is the “Blarney stone”, also know as the “Stone of Eloquence”, a rock framed into the battlements of the castle [1, 3]. The legend says that kissing the stone confers the “gift of the gab”, meaning the attitude to deceive someone by flattering with eloquence [1].
According to one legend, the stone was given to Cormac MacCarthy, by the Celtic goddess Cliodhna, to help him plead an important lawsuit [1]. Another story states that instead it was provided by the Witch of Blarney. Be aware that she is currently trapped under a rock, in the castle grounds [1].
Perhaps, even Queen Elizabeth I experienced how powerful the stone is: She tried to turn Cormac mac Diarmada, chief of the MacCarthys, into a loyal English subject but he took time and, with his eloquence made the Queen lose her patience till the point that she exclaimed “This is all Blarney, what he says he never means!” [5].
Nowadays, tourists can lean out the machicolation hosting the stone and kiss it. They can even get their picture taken, to prove that they acquired the gift of eloquence, even if there is no certainty they did so. Even celebrities like Stan Laurel, Mick Jagger, Churchill or Sir Walter Scott, have all kissed the Stone, in order to receive the gift of eloquence [6]: hence, if you visit the castle, don’t miss this opportunity!
Hold on! There is one more mistery to reveal. After the battle of Boyne, Donough MacCarthy,back then fourth Earl of Clancarty, was arrested and made prisoner in the Tower of London, but before leaving, he managed to put all his valuables in a chest which he threw in the lake beside the castle. Is that all? Well, no: His ghost rises every seven years in the hope that someone will return his lost treasure [5].
References
- [1] "Haunted Ireland - Haunting tales from an Ancient Land", Real Ireland Design, 2020
- [2] Wikipedia, Blarney Castle
- [3] Mairéad Ashe Fitzgerald, "Castles of Ireland", The O’Brien Press, Reprinted 2021
- [4] Orna Mulcahy, "Irish Castles", Collins Little Books, 2020
- [5] Tarquin Blake, "Exploring Ireland’s Castles", The Collins Press, 2017
- [6] Blarney Castle & Gardens
