Woolly says – We woke to a fine mist of rain, undaunted by this as we had come to Ireland expecting rain every day, we loaded the car and waved goodbye to Cork and set off for our first destination.

Blarney Castle is a medieval stronghold in Blarney, a town in Cork. Though earlier fortifications were built on the same spot, the current keep was built by the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty, a cadet branch of the Kings of Desmond, and dates from 1446. The castle was besieged during the Irish Confederate Wars and was seized in 1646 by Parliamentarian forces under Lord Broghill. However, after the Restoration, the castle was restored to Donough MacCarty, who was made 1st Earl of Clancarty. It was sold and changed hands several times—Sir Richard Pyne, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, owned it briefly—before being purchased in the early 18th century by Sir James Jeffreys, governor of Cork City.

 The Blarney Stone is one of the most famous places to visit in the country and is located at the top of the castle, it was something I had discussed with the women who were giving a flat no to kissing the stone whilst I was up for it, we would see once we arrived whether they changed their minds or not.

Having parked and paid for our tickets we wandered along a river before crossing a small wooden bridge and getting our first view of the famous building.

A large square tower lay in front of us with some adjoining walls, the closer we got the more impressive the size of it became. I was particularly taken with the small round tower that appeared to be attached with its many windows.

Standing below the castle and the rocks it stood on made it look immense.

Underneath were a couple of small entrances with one gated for the dungeons, which had a set of steps leading somewhere, being gated and having been warned not to stray from Jo and Zoe I resisted the need to try and find out where they went.

Walking further round we found another small round look out tower before stepping through a small archway and finding ourselves in a courtyard with some information displayed about the history of the castle.

Having read some of the boards we left the area and walked upwards towards the castle entrance taking the time to pause at the small tower I had been admiring from afar, it was very small once close enough and even my bestie Sion the sheep might be pushed for space in it.

Into the castle we went, sadly a large number of people had got there before us and the queue to get up to the top of the castle was already at the 15 minute point, the three of us looked at each other knowing that this was not going to be a happy time for us. Slowly we crept up each step one by one with more crowds forming behind us, we admired the brickwork before spending five minutes looking at a fireplace which due to the lack of floor now hung in the middle of the wall.

More minutes passed as we stood looking into a small room which had once been the Earls bedroom, it did have a lovely window area which I spent several minutes admiring.

Up a couple more steps and I could peer through a grilled window at some trees, a few minutes later I got to admire a corridor for far too long.

It then got a bit more exciting as I got the chance to look through a slitted window and I happily spent the net five minutes doing exactly that. We came to a room called the ‘Young Ladies Bedroom’, with a number of windows in the thick walls I had plenty of time to admire every inch of it.

Then came the kitchen, which was showing off its large fireplace, I counted 526 bricks before we moved on again.

Finally, we arrived back in daylight to find the drizzle had stopped, we stood at the top of the kitchen chimney for what felt like years but at least we had a view over the fields where we could spot lots of brown cows.

Having moved another few feet we could see over the gardens far below, Jo didn’t like this and decided to look at the stone wall Infront of us instead which had some roof supports to admire as well as what appeared to be a water drain.

Finally, we were right at the top and could enjoy looking at the turreted rood space with its bell tower as well as being able to look right to the bottom of the castle with its many arched and square windows, we could also see the end of the queue where people were taking it turns to lie down on the floor and be shoved through a small hole to kiss the magical stone.

With only twelve people in front of us the end was in sight and we had information boards to read about the myths and legends of the stone, had it been blessed by fairies, had a whitch who had been saved from drowning passed it to the castle in thanks for saving her life, there was all many of stories as to how it had gained its magical properties.

The exciting moment was nearly upon us, and I was to follow in the footsteps of Winston Churchill, Laural and Hardy and millions of others by kissing the stone. The women were still refusing to do it and even I was feeling a bit icky about it seeing that they were wiping it with the same cloth after each person, but I wouldn’t let that deter me. Suddenly it was my turn, and a man grabbed my tummy and hoisted me over the edge of the castle, and I did what I needed to do. I shook myself down after being released and wondered when I might feel any different as currently, I just felt a bit sick from being suspended in mid-air.

With the main event over, we got a chance to look at some more of the castle including the guard robe (toilet) which was a bit small for modern man or women and to explore the ground floor being able to stare up at those still waiting to kiss the stone. Some lovely window recesses and small doors and corridors led us into other rooms including another guard robe so at least the residents had been regular in their toilet habits.

Possibly the best bit was the murder hole which was situated above the front door ideal for pouring hot oil or other substances over the unwanted visitors which I thought was a great idea to get rid of unwanted guests.

Outside the castle we could look up to the stone high above us and watch other people being shoved out of the hole. The queue by this point was over two hours in length so we had been lucky in the time it had taken us to get round.

We set off to take in some of the gardens, from the flowering beds to the stumpery, Jo does love a good stumpery and has started one on the glamping site, not that any guests know what it is.

A lovely watch tower took my attention, and I enjoyed a wander through the trees and rock garden area. There were lots more grounds to see but we had places to go so it only seemed sensible to get going.

With raincoats discarded on the back seat we headed off to the Atlantic coast and the delights of Bantry Bay.

As I’m sitting all alone in the gloaming,

It might have been but yesterday.

That we watched the fisher’s sails all homing,

Till the little herring fleet at anchor lay.

Then the fisher girls with baskets swinging,

Came running down the old stone way.

Every lassie to her sailor lad was singing,

Ah welcome back to Bantry Bay. – Various artists

Bantry Bay is a bay located in County Cork, the bay runs approximately 35 km (22 miles) from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately three to four kilometres (2–2+1⁄2 miles) wide at the head and 10 km (6 miles) wide at the entrance. Bantry Bay is a ria, a bay formed from a drowned river valley as a result of a relative rise in sea level. Whiddy Island is at the head of the bay near the south shore. It is the main petroleum terminus for Ireland; the harbour is ideally suited for large oceangoing tankers.

The drive was lovely with views of the mountains whilst catching glimpses of the sea as we climbed up roads and sped round corners.

The two hour drive seemed to pass quickly, as we pulled up at a jetty I bounced out of the car and raced to admire the view across small islands and outcrops in the water. Although we were in the middle of nowhere there was a lady stood admiring the views as well, we chatted for a while, her telling us about her adventures around Ireland and us talking about ours, she had travelled from Holland and was in her fifth month of travel in the Emerald Isle which made me rather jealous.

Climbing back into the car I handed over our travel schedule to Jo who duly told Zoe what to programme into the sat nav, things went strangely quiet for a few minutes before Jo used some very rude words that I am not allowed to say. Zoe seemed to have lost rather a lot of colour in her face, it was clear that neither were happy. It was then that I found out that Jo, who does the mapping for the trips had made a mega boo boo, and we had to make a choice of either going to one or the other of the two places on my list. The problem being that one of them, which is the one the girls wanted to do was actually two hours back to Cork. I was not impressed with this turn of events and to add to the issue we were all hungry and Jo had her legs crossed in desperate need of a loo. We turned the car round and set off back along the road we had driven, five minutes later a toilet break stop thankfully appeared and luckily for her somewhere that did toasted sandwich so although we might be redriving the route we had already come at least, we were fed, watered and toileted. On went our playlist and to lighten the mood we let the singing commence, poor Ireland having to listen to us but it got us back to where we had started from that morning plus a bit more so that we arrived very late in the day at the Cobh.

The Cobh Heritage Centre is a museum located in Cobh, County Cork, and is attached to Cobh railway station. The centre is a tourist destination, including passengers from cruise ships, which often dock in Cobh, it is most famous for being the last port that the Titanic docked at before leaving Ireland on what turned out to be its final voyage.

Staggering out of the car we raced across the road and into the centre for the Titanic experience, just in time for the last tour of the day.

We were handed our passenger tickets to board the Titanic and led by a lovely lady called Lotta who told us all about the day the ship left the dockside.

RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15th April 1912 after striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. Of the 2,208 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died (estimates vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. Titanic, operated by White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada.

She was the largest ship afloat upon entering service and the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for White Star Line. The ship was built by the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast (we will get to that in a week or so). Thomas Andrews Jr., the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward John Smith, who went down with the ship. White Star Line’s chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, survived in a lifeboat.

The first-class accommodations were designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury. They included a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, fine restaurants and cafes, a Victorian-style Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for passenger use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, which contributed to the ship’s reputation as “unsinkable”.

Titanic was equipped with sixteen lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats, for a total capacity of 48 boats. Despite this capacity, the ship was equipped with twenty lifeboats. Fourteen of these were regular lifeboats, two were cutter lifeboats, and four were collapsible boats that proved difficult to prepare for launch while the ship was sinking. Together, these lifeboats could have held 1,178 people – roughly half the number of passengers on board, and a third of the number that the ship could have carried at full capacity (a number consistent with the maritime safety regulations of the era). When the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were carrying an average of 60% of their rated capacity.

Lotta took us to the dock where the tenders had left taking a number of Irish with them, telling us about passengers that had joined the ship at this point and most importantly about a newly qualified cleric, Father Browne who had been told to leave the ship at that point having only been on it for 24 hours, thanks to him and the pictures that he took we have pictures of the mighty ship.

We watched a video of the virtual sinking listening to transcripts of the survivors which was quite emotional. We were then shown the third class cabins, and she explained how those passengers would have been housed before heading into the quarters of a first class passenger.

Entering a museum area, we were left to read or watch further information about the doomed ship which included much more recent footage of the underwater teams that been able to actually send robots down to the sunken vessel and capture pictures of it lying on the ocean bed, it was fascinating.

The clerics photos were on display along with photographs of those that had perished and those that had survived.

As we reached the end of the museum we were told to look at the tickets we had bee given at the entrance to find out if we had survived or died, Zoe’s ticket showed that she hadn’t made it but both Jo and I had not only survived but gone on to live long and happy lives following the catastrophe.

Had it been worth the backtracking we had done, yes, but it did mean that we still had another hour or so of driving before getting to that night’s accommodation, a quick few pictures taken of the town and we set off for the last drive of the day.