We got a later start than planned and with an hour drive, we arrived at Blarney Castle after 10am. So, lots of tour buses had already dropped off LOTS of people! In hindsight, we should have walked around the gardens first and waited for the castle line to go down, but we weren’t sure if there would be other buses later which would increase the line. As it was, we stood in the line for a couple of hours to get up to the top. We met a friendly couple that was on a cruise excursion and passed the time talking to them. I was more interested in just seeing the castle, but the line that went through it was the same line as the “Kiss the Blarney Stone”. Neither Jeremy nor I cared to lay down to kiss the stone, but Randy kissed it. Check out the video showing him doing it. The other video is someone else kissing it, shot from the ground up. Very awkward! I don’t need luck bad enough to put my lips where so many other people have, haha!
The gardens at Blarney Castle are worth spending time in. Some seem other worldly. Before getting back in the car, we walked a short ways over to Blarney Woolen Mills, the largest Irish shop in the world. We wandered around the shop and ate lunch at The Mill Restaurant. I thought it was cute that they had a little robot rolling around that you could put your trash and trays on.
When I was booking lodging, the places between Cashel and Waterford were all sold out. So we drove about 30 minutes out of the way to the Great national Ballykisteen Golf Hotel. It was more spacious than the B&Bs, but it lacked the character! We decided to eat at the Dragon Inn Chinese Restaurant near the hotel in Tipperary.
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