3 Best Sights in County Cork, Ireland

In the center of Blarney, the ruined central keep is all that's left of this mid-15th-century stronghold. The castle contains the famed (or infamous) Blarney Stone. Kissing the stone, it's said, endows the kisser with the fabled "gift of the gab"---which is probably just a load of "Blarney." It's 127 steep steps to the battlements. If you're determined to kiss the stone, (who are we to judge?) you must lie down on the battlements, hold on to a guardrail, and lean your head way back. Expect a line from mid-June to early September; while you wait---or change your mind---you can admire the views of the wooded River Lee valley and chuckle over how that word "blarney" came to mean what it does. As the story goes, Queen Elizabeth I wanted Cormac MacCarthy, Lord of Blarney, to will his castle to the Crown, but he refused her requests with eloquent excuses and soothing compliments. Exhausted by his comments, the queen reportedly exclaimed, "This is all Blarney. What he says he rarely means."

Despite all that Blarney nonsense, the castle is very impressive as are the gardens. You can take pleasant walks around to discover the Rock Close which contains oddly shaped limestone rocks landscaped in the 18th century and a grove of ancient yew trees that is said to have been a site of Druid worship. In early March, there's a wonderful display of daffodils.

To the east of the city center, the past and present are fused together in this ornate riverfront castle that was constructed in 1829, when the original buildings were destroyed by a series of fires---the last happened when a boozy banquet hosted by the local council in 1827 got out of control. Today, the castle sits perched on a rock (hence its name), and visitors can explore its dungeons and murky past with smugglers and pirates---or take in one of the interplanetary shows hosted throughout the day. If all else fails, skip to the top of the tower and battlements for a rewarding view of the city. There is a café on-site.

The Beara Peninsula was the cradle of the most powerful O'Sullivan clan, and the crumbling walls of Dunboy Castle that lie wasting away by the ocean shore just south of Castletownbere were once its stronghold. Of enormous historical significance, the castle was the last bastion of strength held by the O'Sullivan chieftain, Donal Cam O'Sullivan, until it was laid waste by Elizabethan forces shortly after the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. Almost the entire clan of mostly women and children perished in a massacre at a failed hideout on nearby Dursey Island in the aftermath, the rest along the 804-km (500-mile) infamous odyssey due north in a bid to safeguard the clan. This is now waymarked and coined the O'Sullivan Way or Beara-Breifne Way, and is Ireland's longest walking and cycling trail. It can start at either Dursey or Castletownbere. Keep an eye out for Dunboy's neighboring ruin, Puxley Manor, a Victorian Gothic manor that was subjected to a botched development project during Ireland's Celtic Tiger period---its fate is still undecided.