Arrived in to blarney at about 8 or 9 at night to a warm Irish reception from the loveliest lady at the blarney vale our irish b&b.
We were told to walk down to road into the small township which had a cute selection of places to eat. We found two pubs and were just comparing menus when we were spoken to by some wiser slightly inebriated locals who proceeded to inform us which pub had the younger people, which one we should eat at, and that either way we had to come to the one they were heading to as it was Tuesday which meant they had live music.
Our original aim was to walk in have a nice quiet dinner and an early night. But the finest plans of mice and men.... Had dinner at one pub with excellent service the muskerry then headed to our live music pub the blarney hotel. Walked in to half a pub (not actually lying half the pub floor was scattered with people on chairs playing the fiddle) of people of all ages playing the fiddle my guess youngest was 8 oldest was 80. Amazing!!!!!
All the locals were lovely and wanted to know all about New Zealand. The evening eventuates from fiddles to some soul stirring impromptu old Irish folk song singing session with a couple fiddles and an accordion thrown in every now and then. After a Lot of peer pressure wewere made to sing a song of our native land, our shared knowlegde of maori songs was small so we sung the nation anthem in Maori. We were also introduced to my two new favorite drinks - Murphy's stout with a splash of black current and the piece de resistance, Super splits!!! Made of captain Morgan spiced gold rum and club orange. Delicious!!!! Met some epic locals who managed to be out after running a marathon, and in true irish manner stayed at the pub til closing time.
Ended the night with a guided tour of the blarney castle after hours.

Next morning had a home made breaky before heading to the blarney castle.
Climbed up through the castle, explored the little secret rooms and kissed the blarney stone before adventuring around the grounds.
Hopped back into our little blue Nissan and headed back for Dublin via Tipperary and cappawhite where Emily's ancestors were from.

Had a mega mission to find a gas station before dropping the rental car back. We were too very sad girls getting on that plane back to London. Absolutely loved Ireland and keen to return again one day.