Visitors agree claim is a load of old Blarney

WOULD you kiss €7 goodbye for the Blarney Stone?

A travel website says it’s too pricey and not worth the hassle, though foreign tourists who visited it yesterday disagree.

In its editor’s column, Frommers.com, a renowned travel guide, said the famous stone was an “overrated travel experience”.

A story posted by one of his staff described the €7 entry fee to the attraction as pricey. Correspondent Jennifer Reilly said it puzzled her why tourists continue to flock there and her advice was to skip the stone, although she did admit the castle was nice.

“Yes, you’ll get a decidedly up-close-and-personal look at the stone here, which is purported to bestow the gift of gab on all who kiss it. But first you’ll have to pay a hefty €7 and contend with long lines in high season.” Ms Reilly said.

Apart from getting the gift of the gab, visitors would probably get a sore back from lying down to kiss the stone, she said.

But yesterday two visitors, Wilfred Phlippen and his friend Stephanie Laaks, from Cologne in Germany, said the cost of entering the castle, which included a chance to kiss the Blarney Stone and walk the grounds was very good value.

“It is probably slightly lower than anything similar in Germany and we’ve nearly had a day out for it,” Mr Phlippen said.

A number of Polish students studying cultural tourism agreed. Majdalena Pisarska from Gdansk said she’d enjoyed visiting the caves within the facility. “The castle was very interesting as well,” explained her friend Karolina Nowale. Both women said their entry price of €5 for students was reasonable.

Kathleen Cummins from Detroit said she didn’t think the price was high at all, while one of her travelling companions, Charles Trapp, described it as “bargain history”.

A spokeswoman for the castle said she was surprised by the comments, especially as the popular attraction is visited by more than 300,000 tourists annually.