A few bleary eyes on the bus this morning after a late night at Sean Og’s and then the nightclub over the road, today we are headed for Dungarvan where the boys are playing two games against the local GAA teams.

The fab Blarney Castle is on the way, which is a real bonus for me. I must say I am very disappointed in the level of interest taken in castles by many of the travelers on the bus, I would go as far as to say that there is significant disinterest in castles, much to my dismay. Fortunately those poor souls will have no impact on the itinerary , thank goodness.

We have visited Blarney before, so whilst I do go through the castle, the grounds themselves are what takes my interest this time. The castle we see today I guess is relatively young given that it was only built in 1446 by Dermot MacCarthy, with the first castle on this sight being built in 1210, and the second in the 1300’s by Cormac MacCarthy. So why is this castle so well known? Well many say that is because of the very famous Blarney Stone, if you kiss the stone apparently you will never be lost for words… I am yet to try this out, so am unable to answer the question as to whether it works or not. 

The story behind the Blarney Stone is a cute tale which is beautifully told by the Irish, in a nutshell Queen Elizabeth I was frustrated by the lack of tax money being sent back to the national coffers, so sent delegation after delegation to “take the castle”, however this never occurred as MacCarthy wined and dined them, basically sweet talking those who would try to negotiate, the Queen was heard to say that it was all blarney, and so the phrase stuck and a stone from the 2nd castle has remained in place.

The grounds of the castle I had never explored before and they did bring out my inner Druid, there are magnificent ancient trees and stones which are believed to have been a place of worship in pre Christian days. The place felt really magical and as I wandered around alone I wondered if this would be a “Picnic at Hanging Rock” moment where I walked up an ancient staircase never to be seen again, or I would come across a fairy or leprechaun – it was very cool indeed.   

    
 From Blarney we headed to Dungarvan where the local GAA club had arranged for us to go to the Al Eile Thoroughbred Racehorse Stud in Inchindrisla. This place looks more like a very upmarket spa for the ponies, with spa baths, pools and sun lamps and whilst I didn’t see the massage tables I am sure that they exist, as well as somewhere do practice yoga. They have had some very successful horses come out of this stud,  with one yearling Colt being sold for £2.85 million, yep million and a number of connections to well known horses that have been to the Melbourne Cup.

After farwelling the gee gees we head straight to the ground for two games of Gaelic, the families are just gorgeous and have arranged hot drinks and cakes for us all as we won’t be having dinner until after the games  when we go back at the hotel we are staying at. It is cold, but they do have a dug out that we can all stand in which takes the edge off the weather. The boys win both the games convincingly, which has been the case throughout the trip.   

The Park Hotel where we are staying is really lovely, with the local families hosting a dinner for the boys and then a presentation evening , which we were also invited to – just grand !