| It's a fine cloudy morning at the Ballyboy Bed and Breakfast (and we had to take quite the drive to get there with our loyal GPS leading us down back roads that got increasingly smaller until we were finally left with hedges that had pushed our mirrors in on both sides of the car). The next morning, while the family ran around packing up the van and getting our bags ready to leave, my sister and I went "adventuring" and found ourselves in a secret garden behind the white stucco farm house. |  |
  | That right there would be the kitchen garden (okay, maybe it's not quite the secret garden as might've been suggested.) But what a place to do your gardening - it's one of those places you only think you'll read about in a book or see in a movie and there it is as you walk through the gate. Not to be put off track by the beautiful garden though, we kept down the path, brushing up on muddy leaves and wet plants down deeper through the trees.  |
| Before giving up our exploring (the family at this point was out at the car yelling for us, as if there could possibly be anything more important than the current exploring), we finally stumbled through a closed wooden gate and into a ruined castle. Adventuring success? I think so. |  |
Blarney Manor
| Today though would be a day for great churches and mythical castles, so we were easily pacified. We even saw a bit of sun on our way to the Rock of Cashel which made us think for a moment that we may be looking at a bit of Vitamin D and had all pulled off our jackets and put away our umbrellas when the worst downpour (and the beginning of the wet shoes) hit us and left us huddled beneath a rock wall. We wandered through roofless arches and old gravestones before going over to Blarney Castle where we climbed our way up narrow steep staircases to kiss the Blarney stone, and then pretended we were in Pride and Prejudice as we roamed through the poison garden and ferns. |  |
 High Cross at the Rock of Cashel |  Detail of weathered grave marker at Rock of Cashel |
 Stairwell at Blarney Castle, the outside edges are barely wide enough for the length of a foot  The Poison Garden at Blarney Castle... No fences here  Fern Garden at Blarney Castle |  Maintenance workers scaling up the sides of Blarney Castle. Grass and vines have to be removed for the stability of the castle.  Fallen flowers in the Poison Garden at Blarney Castle  Fern Garden at Blarney Castle |
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