Blarney Castle to Tramore, Ireland October 4, 2026

Our first stop for today is Blarney Castle, home of the famous Stone of Eloquence, better known as the Blarney Stone. 

The castle is located in County Cork, and was built by the clan McCarthy over 600 years ago. 

First glimpse as we came into the small town of Blarney

The castle is not visible unless you pay to enter the 100 acre grounds. They've certainly figured out how to benefit from tourists. We paid our 19 euro senior rate and walked to the first view point.

Views of the castle.

At the center top is the stone to kiss

Closer view of someone up there laying on their back and reaching out backwards while someone holds your legs to kiss the circled area.

Post card showing view from top

One legend of the stone is that the Laird of the castle saved a drowning woman, who granted him a wish. He stuttered, so he wished for good speech. She told him to get a stone from the river and kiss it which gave him the gift of gab and eloquent speech. He then hid the stone at the top of his castle. 

Or, maybe this sign is the truth. 

We passed on that entire experience. It was 90 steps to climb to the top, and then the whole laying down backwards just didn't appeal to us, but several in our group did do it.

The castle grounds have beautiful gardens, I'm sure even more so in summer. They even have a poison garden teaching about poisonous plants. 

There was a stone circle. The story is the Laird had 9 children, 2 sons and 7 daughters. The 2 sons were killed in battle, so he knocked over 2 stones. The 7 standing are for the remaining daughters. 

Jamie Fraser, here I come!!

Harbor where 1950s movie Moby Dick was filmed

 

Our second stop of the day was the harbor town of Waterford, Ireland's oldest city, conquered by the Vikings in the 9th century.  

Reginald's Tower, constructed in 1253, is the only monument in Ireland named in honor of a Viking. There is also a Viking longboat replica.

Also in Waterford is the iconic House of Waterford. We looked around at some of the beautiful crystal pieces. The ones shown below were for sale from 25,000 to 60,000 euros. The Christmas tree didn't have a price. Not today!

Of course, they did have drinking glasses and vases for much less, only hundreds instead of thousands. 

The Irish tricolor flag was first flown here in 1848. It was designed by Irish nationalist, Thomas Francis Meagher. The green represents Protestants, the orange Catholics, and the white peace.

In the evening, we attended an optional excursion, a night of music and drink in a typical Irish pub. The entertainer, Richie, was a great singer and very funny. He sang some old and new songs. It was a very enjoyable evening!!

Our route for today. 

Killarney and The Ring of Kerry, Ireland October 3, 2026

The weather gods are smiling on us again today as we have beautiful sunshine with temperatures in the mid 60s.

We began our day with an optional excursion called the Jaunting Car Ride, a horse drawn buggy ride through part of Killarney National Park. 

The park is Ireland's first national park established in 1934. We saw red deer, native to Ireland; and Japanese deer, which were brought from England in the 1800s for hunting. 

Kerry cows supposedly produce the best cream, used in the creamiest of ice creams. I can attest that ice cream made with this cream is delicious!

This cottage from the 1830s is the only remaining thatched roof building in Killarney. 

Ross Castle, 15th century, overlooks the beautiful Lough Leane and mountains. 

Our driver, Mike, and horse, 12 year old Jessica, did a great job guiding us through traffic.

Killarney cathedral 

Highest mountains in Ireland, about 3,300 feet

Killarney Distillery and Brewery

The Ring of Kerry is a scenic drive with many spectacular views. It's across the water from our drive yesterday, where we couldn't see much of anything. 

Tim with his donkey, Paddy, and dog, Skye, was entertaining tourists at one of the pullouts.

We stopped at this place called Glen Beigh, which is known as a famous "thin place". Our guide has mentioned these thin places before. They are legendary areas where it is thin between this world and the other. Fairies are known to inhabit these areas. I didn't see any unless they were disguised as sheep. 😒

Across the water is the peninsula we were on yesterday 

Waterville is a small village Charlie Chaplin used to visit every year with his family. 

More scenery 

Our scenic route today  

Adare to Killarney, Ireland October 2,2026

Our first stop today was Adare, home of Adare Manor, a very exclusive golf resort. Next year's Ryder Cup will be played here.

To play the course, you must stay at the historical manor hotel on the grounds, pay for a caddy plus greens fees. All of this will run you thousands of dollars. 

Historic entry gate

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Photo of hotel from web

The town is very cute with many thatched roof buildings and an 800 year old abbey.

We will be passing through the town of Limerick today, so our guide challenged us to write two limericks. He will read them out loud when we're done. That should be good for some laughs!

Our weather luck has run out today. It's been pouring pretty much all day. Our tour today was for a scenic drive along the Atlantic coast side of Ireland, but we didn't see much as it was quite misty in the distance. What we did see was the greenest countryside imaginable. At least it wasn't a planned day of walking around a lot.

We stopped in the town of Dingle. There is a jewelry store that will write your name on jewelry in Ogham, the first known written language of Ireland, dating to 400 AD.

It's a series of lines representing the letters, and is written from bottom to top. They wrote my name for me on a piece of paper. 

Further along the coast, the weather was still miserable, so not much to see.

In the later Star Wars movies, Luke is living on a remote island as an old man. Those scenes were filmed on an island off this coast of Ireland. Apparently, they ruined some historical structures. There is a statue of Yoda and Darth Vader at the local inn.

Another castle.

The Irish countryside looks like a giant quilt. All over the western side of the island are ancient stone walls that are protected by the government. No one is allowed to move or damage them. So, homes and farm fields are just designed around them. 

More Atlantic Ocean scenery on our way to tonight's stop in Killarney. 

Our route today.