We had sunshine for most of Friday, and it was fine when we didn't because we saw two rainbows after brief showers. We started our day with eggs, toast, and various other items for breakfast at the Muskerry Arms, then we drove the five minutes to Blarney Castle, whose uppermost reaches require climbing precarious spiral staircases. I chickened out on kissing the Blarney Stone (I don't see how anyone under 5' tall can reach it without being put on a rope), but the castle ruins themselves, garderobes and all, plus the extensive gardens are spectacular...including megaliths, ancient trees, waterfalls, poison plants, and color-changing ivy on the curtain walls. We grabbed a picnic lunch in town and ate it on the way to Grange Stone Circle, with the biggest diameter of any circle in Ireland. Some stones have trees with roots growing around them and there were a couple of pagans performing a ritual in the center.
From there we drove to King John's Castle in Limerick, which has extensive history exhibits on the ground floor, a courtyard with historical games from horseshoes to seesaws and displays of smithcraft, masonry, and musical instruments, and the remains of the castle (destroyed after extensive siege warfare from the archeological excavations underground to the towers with beautiful views of the River Shannon. After much climbing medieval staircases to see what's left of the rooms there, we headed to Lahinch, where we dropped off our things at the hotel and walked to the beach just in time for sunset. The tide was out, so we also got to see mussels, clams, and limpets, plus seagulls looking for them and several people walking friendly dogs. We picked up fish and chips for those who eat fish and a veggie burger for me at a local place and watched a special about the late great Maggie Smith we found on TV.
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