Blarney Stone kiss could be wasted effort

Ireland’s famous Blarney Stone, renowned for giving those who kiss it the gift of the gab, may in fact be nothing but Blarney.

Disappointingly, for the hundreds of pilgrims who climb the steep battlements every day to plant their lips on it, they may be smooching the wrong block.

Rather than a stirring legend of magical powers, experts believe the present stone, kissed in the vain hope of eloquence, came into use in 1888 for health and safety reasons.

The old nerve-wracking practice of dangling by the ankles to reach the stone was replaced in favour a safer stretch to a much closer block.

A study of the history of Blarney Castle, where the bluestone sits high on ancient parapets, found the 300,000 people a year who patiently queue expecting powers of speech and flattery get nothing but an enjoyable view and cold lips.

Authors Mark Samuel and Kate Hamlyn have claimed a new stone was chosen on the north face around 1880 for fears of damage by over-eager souvenir hunters and injury to visitors.

Mr Samuel said: “I’m not in a position to say the stone is worthless, I’m saying there’s a real kernel of hard fact that there is a special bluestone.

“But it’s to pin down where it is. It was all part of the phenomenon of reinventing the castle that happened in the last 200 years as a romantic spot.”

The work Blarney Castle: Its History, Development and Purpose examines all the mysteries linked to the castle, gives an account of the castle, its history and the three families who owned it.

Despite the dent the authors have put in the myth, Blarney Castle prefers to promote the facts and points to two of its most famous pilgrims, Winston Churchill, who is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest orators, and renowned comedian and storyteller Billy Connolly. Neither were known for being stuck for words.

The various myths of the Blarney Stone all suggest it came from a different source than the rest of the building materials.

In the past, visitors had to be held by the ankles and lowered head first over the battlements to kiss the stone. Nowadays, visitors lie flat on their back, hold iron railings and lean out to kiss the stone below them.

It was once known as Jacobs Pillow, brought back from the Holy Land after the crusades.

Another legend suggests it was a gift from Robert the Bruce to the McCarthy’s in 1314 for providing a 5,000 strong infantry to fight Edward II in Scotland at the Battle of Bannockburn.

As a reward the Cork chieftain received a piece of the Stone of Scone, on which the kings of Scotland were inaugurated.

The only certainty is that the stone is high up in the tower of Blarney Castle and was originally linked to a date chiselled into a brick visible on the north-east corner of the keep. The inscription read Cormach MacCarthy Fortis Mi Fieri Fecit AD 1446.