Blarney bid for heritage status
Extraordinarily, Blarney, Co Cork, is not one of the 27 listed Heritage Towns in Ireland which are protected by strict laws which ensure they can not be spoilt by overdevelopment, or the creation of new buildings which do not fit in with their historic or scenic nature.
The town, which is home to the iconic Blarney Stone — kissed by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year in the hope of getting ‘the gift of the gab’ — is not even designated as an architectural conservation area, unlike many other towns and villages in the country.
