~January 10th, 2017~
After a few days of finding our way around the city, my dad and I decided to spend our free day by doing a little sightseeing around Cork County. Our first stop was the famous Blarney Castle! It is the off season for tourists right now in Ireland, so we almost had the whole grounds to ourselves. This made it absolutely breathtaking. After walking the grounds and taking in the beautiful landscape, we made began the journey through the castle itself. We had to hike up the billion stairs to reach the Blarney Stone at the top. The Blarney Stone was brought back to Ireland from the Crusades, and hidden by building it into the wall of Blarney Castle. Legend has it, that if you kiss the block of limestone while visiting Blarney Castle, you are bestowed with the gift of eloquence and gab. Needless to say, we both took the plunge by hanging upside down to kiss it. (Pictures below).
After departing from Blarney, we headed to Cobh, County Cork, a coastal town along the Atlantic Ocean. This was just a quick stop to see the sea and take in the cute town. While in Cobh, we learned that the famous ship, the Titanic, had its final docking point here in Cobh, before setting sail on its fateful journey. In addition, there was a museum dedicated to the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island on their journey to America. Annie Moore was immigrating from Cork at the age of fifteen in 1892.
Following seeing the coast of Cobh, we drove through the countryside to see the Cliffs of Ballycotton. Ballycotton was a small fishing village that was farther down the coast that was home to a few beautiful cliffs with the ocean below. We were able to walk up to the highest point of the village for the best view of the coastline.
Our last stop on our sightseeing adventure was my dad’s favorite, the Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery. Despite not being an avid whiskey fan, this tour was AWESOME! The Jameson distillery is located in Middleton, County Cork and is the only place in the world that Jameson Irish Whiskey is made. Before the tour, we had a quick lunch at the Jameson restaurant, and we both had seafood chowder, which we found is made with seafood all caught at Ballycotton, which we just were! It was delicious of course and filled us up before our walk around the Jameson property. The tour took us through the history and distilling process of Jameson Irish Whiskey. It was fascinating to learn about the detailed process of whiskey making in Ireland that has remained the same for over 200 years. We even got to see a mini distillery, that was just recently opened, where they test new ideas and recipes. The last stop on the Jameson experience was the bar (of course). Here, they gave us the option have having a glass of Jameson straight up or a Jameson and ginger ale with fresh lime. There was no way that I was going to try to drink whiskey straight up, so I had the Jameson & Ginger and of course my dad was cool and had just the plain Jameson. Then the tour guide had us sample 3 whiskeys (watered down, thank goodness). It was an American whiskey, Scottish whiskey, and of course Jameson. Naturally the Jameson was the smoothest, then the Scottish, and coming in last place the American whisky (which I’m pretty sure was Jack Daniels).
That concluded our day of sightseeing, but the drive home allowed us to see a lot of the country side. It was a wonderful day and definitely one of my favorites so far.
