The Blarney stone from up high.
The slot at the top where it has been carefully placed.
This post travels from the writings of Moses in Midian to 1314 AD and then today in 2026. It is a warm day and we have climbed an internal tower staircase with a thick rope as a hand rail. We all need it as the stairs are narrow in places and well worn as they twist upwards. The views are worth climbing for and then there is the Blarney stone. People from size S to XXXL lie on their backs and sometimes thank the attendent for saving their lives by ‘ holding’ them as they stretch and groan to kiss!
Let us start the story. It has deception and a person running away. This is a summary. A mother Rebecca helps her protesting son to deceive his father, her husband. How? Rebecca had twin boys; hairy Esau and smooth skinned Jacob. Esau the eldest was to have the birthright and Rebecca wanted her younger son to have it.
Listen to Jacob’s voice of protest:
‘ My father will feel me and I will be a deceiver in his eyes and I will bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.’
The mother was insistent. This is how they would do it. She would cook the kid goat so Jacob wouldn’t have to go and hunt, they could put its coat on his arms, and he could wear Esau’s best clothes which she had.
The plan went well until Isaac asked this question:
‘ How did you find the food so quickly?’ And here is a lie:
‘ The LORD thy God brought it to me.’
The old father felt his arms was sure that voice he heard was not Esau’s and asked the second question:
‘ Are you my very son Esau?’
And Jacob said: ‘ I am.’
Jacob is given the birth right and Rebecca tells her son to runaway for his brother has come back from hunting to prepare the food for the blessing that has been given away.
Here comes the stone in the story.
Jacob flees and once far enough away from home, dejected and feeling the pain of guilt finds a flat stone and uses it as a pillow. That night he dreams of a ladder well joined to the earth but which reaches far up into heaven and there are angels walking up and down it.
Jacob woke up and said: ‘ How dreadful/awe-inspiring is this place. This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’
Jacob takes the stone, sets it up, pours oil on it and calls the place Bethel. He then says this:
‘ If God will be with me, and keep me in this way, and give me food and clothes, so I again can come to my father’s house, then the LORD shall be my God… I will give a tenth back to God of all my house.’
This is where the story continues from the castle pamphlet. Some say Jeremiah brought Jacobs stone pillow to Ireland. Here it became Lia Fail. The stone that sorted kings. Legend then says it was removed to Scotland where it served as the prophetic power of royal succession. Then when Cormac MacCarthy King of Munster, sent 4,000 men to support Robert the Bruce in his defence of the English at Bannochburn im 1314, the stone was split in half and sent to Blarney. Some years later, a witch saved from drowning revealed its powers to the MacCarthys.
This is what is said:
‘ There is a stone there, That whoever kisses, Oh! He never misses to grow eloquent.’
…and so we kiss it!
Blarney castle an expensive but interesting visit.
Ancient stone that made a home. A welcoming hall, bedrooms and a murder room. A castle with walls so thick that cool is kept in and enemies out. Views from near the top.
There is a poison garden and troughs of insect catcher plants doing very well.
But what is the star attraction, what draws the famous and the lowly? The blarney stone.
Take care,
Sandy 🙂
Ps
What is a birth right? This is something significant to God because it represents leadership, responsibility, and a double share of inheritance. All this so that the eldest can take care of the family spiritually and physically. The story of Jacob continues after his dream. He is deceived several times and to such an extent that he sleeps with the uglier sister of his chosen bride. It is a long life story with eventful experiences of a man who has to learn that God cares deeply about how people treat His promises.