The wrong stone? That’s a load of blarney
A book by British archaeologist and architectural historian Mark Samuels and his wife, Kate Hamlyn, suggests that statesmen, world leaders and millions of visitors have been “romancing the wrong stone” for about 200 years.
Their claims that the world-famous stone, which is supposed to bestow the gift of the gap, attracted worldwide media attention yesterday.
The couple arrived in Blarney village yesterday for the book launch by castle owner Sir Charles Colthurst and admitted to being stunned by the reaction.
“This was not an attempt to rubbish the Blarney Stone. We are simply setting it in its context,” said Ms Hamlyn.
During the course of their research, she said it became apparent the Blarney Stone has been other stones. A similar controversy raged in the late 1890s but everyone’s forgotten about it, she added.
Mr Samuels said he began researching the book with a great deal of scepticism.
“There has always been a lot of doubt about where the Blarney Stone actually is in the castle and what its origins are,” he said.
“And the funny thing is that far from it being something completely without foundation, there are quite good grounds now for saying that there is a Blarney Stone in the castle somewhere, but not the one that people are kissing which has only been the one identified as the Blarney Stone since about 1870.
“The first clear reference I can find of people kissing that particular part of the castle is in 1888,” he said.
“We have excellent evidence of the fact that people initially kissed another Blarney Stone which was at the top of north east part of the castle.
“In the 1880s, there seems to have been a certain amount of fluidity about where the stone was according to which guide you got,” said Mr Samuels.
But David Daly, who lowers people backwards to kiss the “real stone”, said their claims are a load of blarney.
Visitors once had to be held by their ankles and lowered head first over the battlements to kiss the stone.
“Then in the early 1880s, you had to put on a harness and be put out over the outside of the castle to kiss it,” he said.
But amid health and safety concerns, people were brought inside the battlements to kiss it from a different angle.
“The only stone that was ever kissed in Blarney, is the stone they kiss today,” he said. Sir Charles Colthurst was not available for comment yesterday.
Blarney Castle is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland, with more than 300,000 visitors a year. But the origin of the Blarney Stone is shrouded in mystery.
Some say it was Jacob’s Pillow, brought to Ireland by the prophet Jeremiah.
It was also said to be the deathbed pillow of St Columba on the island of Iona.
Another legend suggests it is a portion of the Stone of Scone given by Scottish king Robert the Bruce to Cormac MacCarthy, King of Munster, as a thank-you for sending 5,000 men to aid his battle against English forces at Bannockburn in 1314.
Winston Churchill kissed the stone in 1912 while First Lord of the Admiralty, and went on to become one of the greatest orators of the 20th century.
Michael Madsen, Milton S Hershey, who went on to found America’s biggest confectionery company, kissed the stone while travelling in Europe, Laurel and Hardy, Billy Connolly, and Sir Walter Scott have also puckered up.
Discovery’s Travel Channel lists kissing the Blarney Stone amongst its 99 things to do before you die.
* Blarney Castle: Its History, Development and Purpose, published by Cork University Press, priced €39.
* The first building on the site of Blarney Castle was a wooden structure erected around 950AD.
* It was replaced around 1210AD by a stone structure.
* In 1446, the third castle was built by Dermot McCarthy, King of Munster. The keep remains standing.
* It was subsequently occupied by Cormac McCarthy, King of Munster.
* Legend has it that Robert the Bruce gave him half of the Stone of Scone, which was incorporated into the battlements, where it can now be kissed.
* The land around Blarney was later sold to the Hollow Sword Blade Company of London.
* It then sold the estate to Sir Richard Payne, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland for £3,800 in April 1703.
* He sold it later in the year to Sir James Jefferyes, the Governor of Cork City.
* Sir James, ancestor of the current owner, was born in Scotland and spent much of his life as a soldier in Europe. He came to Ireland as part of William of Orange’s army.
* The Jefferyes intermarried on January 14, 1846, with the Colthurst family of Ardrum, Inniscarra, and Ballyvourney, Co Cork, and Lucan, Co Dublin.
* Lady Colthurst decided to build the new castle in Scottish baronial style south of the present keep.
* This was completed in 1874 and has been the family home ever since.
IRELAND’S famous Blarney Stone, renowned for giving those who kiss it the gift of the gab, may in fact be nothing but blarney.
THE thousands of people who contort themselves to kiss the Blarney Stone in the hope it will give them the gift of the gab may have been smooching the wrong stone.
KISSING Ireland’s famous Blarney Stone may not give you the gift of the gab as legend says — because it may be the wrong one.
MILLIONS of tourists may have been romancing the wrong stone on a castle battlement in southern Ireland in an effort to get the ‘gift of the gab’.
ACCORDING to legend, kissing the stone at Blarney Castle, near Cork, endows the kisser with the gift of gab or great eloquence and skill at flattery. The authenticity of the Blarney Stone has been questioned by Mark Samuel, an archaeologist and architectural historian, and Kate Hamlyn in a new book.
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