Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle, located in Ireland, is the home of the famous Blarney Stone, which if kissed could get you the "gift of the gab," meaning that you would be priveleged of telling lies for seven years. Queen Elizabeth I, coined the phrase when she was fed up with Lord Blarney's incessant talk and not ever agreeing to her demands.

To kiss the stone, you must bend over backward and lower yourself down about 2 feet at the top of the castle.

Blarney is a tower house and was built about 1466 on solid limestone. The castle is in ruin, but is a great tourist attraction. It has a very narrow spiral staircase, which was made to disable enemies from ascending more than one at a time, therefore protecting residents. Windows were also very narrow slits to allow arrows to be shot from inside but making it very difficult, if not impossible to shoot an arrow through from the outside. Photo to the right shows view of window from inside castle.