Weather wise, today was another pretty average day. The rain drizzle didn’t really stop for more than a few minutes at a time! 

We went and had a look at the Blarney Woollen Mills – a VERY big shop! And then wandered over to the Blarney Castle. We all kissed the Blarney Stone, believed to give you the “gift of the gab”.

   
 
From there, we drove onto Chashel, where we had a very nice lunch and visited The Rock of Cashel. We found out a few interesting facts and snippets of information there!

• Around the 12th century, the choir practised the chants with music, but in the actual service in thecathedral they were not allowed to have musical instruments as they believed that it would reduce the solemnity of the service.
• The cathedral is in a cross shape, but the different thing about this cathedral is that the altar is at the wrong end. It’s up the opposite end to what it would usually be! This is because of the way they had to build and fit it around the existing buildings, and fit it on the rock.
• The ‘rock’ is a big limestone hill. 
• There is a big chunk of stone work that fell in a bad storm in the 19th century from quite high up the cathedral wall. Nobody knows if there was anybody underneath it, but it remains in that same place to this day.
• There is mythical belief that if you hug the four armed cross and touch your fingers together at the other side, you will never have to go to the dentist again and you will have perfect teeth for the rest of your life!

   
   
We arrived in Kilkenny with just enough time to drop our bags off at the guesthouse before walking down the street for dinner. We had a nice meal, and then popped into an Irish pub to listen to some Irish music on the way home!

Tara