Kathryn Bird and her daughter Jade explore Cork, Ireland by motorhome, visiting Rock of Cashel, Mahon Falls, and Blarney Castle. They test the Magic Road optical illusion in neutral gear, hike to the falls, and kiss the Blarney Stone, which requires arriving early and awkward positioning to avoid long queues.
It proper goes up! That's so cool!
Hi, I'm Kath. I live and travel in my motorhome full-time with my dog Mac, but currently we're exploring the wilds of Ireland. If you missed the start of my series, I'll leave the link for it in the notes, but on this episode my daughter Jade joins me for a few days whilst we explore Cork and kiss the Blarney Stone, and then I start the Wild Atlantic Way Proper, going from Kinsale, which is the start, all the way down to the spectacular Mizen Head. But first, we stop for a visit at the incredible Roc de Cachelle. I found a rock!
You found a rock?
Oh wow, look at it!
Oops.
Right, you want to try to stick it?
Oh, that's dangerous.
I know, just— you can do it, I have faith in you.
Uh, don't.
The castle is incredible and well worth a visit. If you can, be sure to book onto a guided tour because the knowledge the guides have really brings the place to life, and it's definitely worth paying a little bit extra to go inside the chapel. This is the place that's just been restored, and they've restricted it to a certain number of people each day, so if you can get in there, really do. It's also got one of the world's oldest spiral staircases. So what do we think of the Rock of Cashel?
It was more than a rock.
It was more than a rock.
It was more than a rock. Yeah, it was really good. It was amazing. It was stunning. It was very windy, but it was amazing.
So now where are we off to?
Uh, I, uh—
You do, you know this. You do know this.
Uh, Tipperary. Yay! Long way to Tipperary, it's a long way to go.
We had a lot to fit into a couple of days, so we didn't stay We didn't stay in Tipperary much longer than it took to take this photo of us next to the sign, but then we headed out into the wilderness to the stunning Mahon Falls and the Magic Road. We were initially planning to sleep in the car park up by the falls, but it was so windy that the van was shaking all over the place, so we headed back down the hill and asked the cafe right at the bottom if we could stay there for the night, and they were very happy to, as long as we came and had breakfast the The next morning. Oh, twist our arm. So the next morning we were up very early because I wanted to test out the Magic Road without any other traffic around. Good morning! We are up stupidly early. I don't know if you can see the sunrise, it's just— it's like half 6 in the morning because we've just discovered that we're like 100 meters from the Magic Road. And the Magic Road is where the fairies or the leprechauns live.
That's legit.
And basically, yes, you drive up there, you put the engine in neutral, and then it rolls Up hill. Jade's gonna film it.
Yep, so I won't be in the crash.
Um, so we're gonna do it early before anybody else turns up. So yeah, watch this space. Apparently there's 2 stones somewhere that says fairy tree. Yeah, or magic road or something.
There it is, that tree. That's the tree.
What, where?
That tree, that little, little tree. It's got the heist on it!
Where?
On the left!
Oh yeah, Magic Road! There's the JD running, you don't see that sight very often! If you stand at the back, like behind me somewhere, go up that little bit of hill, and then I'm gonna roll. Okay, not turning the engine off, but it's just out of gear.
Okay, so that's the magic tree and this is the roll.
Oh, it's rolling quite quick! Oh no!
Jeez, jeez, it proper goes up! That's so cool! And away she goes, off with the fairies.
I'm definitely having to steer. Do not do this without somebody in the car driving. It's going really fast. And if you're doing it in a motorhome, please keep the engine running in case somebody comes or something. But you can just do it out of gear. That was really fun. Do you want to come in?
Yeah.
Magic Road testing completed, we carried on up the road until we reached the car park by Mahon Falls. This is a fantastic hike. It takes you about an hour or so, quite flat unless you're Jade and you go scrambling around the waterfall. And then it was back down the hill to Cooney's Yard Cafe to fulfill our promise and enjoy a delicious breakfast. It's a tough job, but we did it valiantly. I don't know, just filming B-roll, and then I realized what an absolute tip our van was. Yeah, but yeah, stick 2 ADHD girls in a van together and this is what happens. To be fair, most— actually, that's not even true. No, half of that is mine.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're about to blame it on me. I was. My stuff is mostly there.
Do we believe this?
Just as long as you don't look here, it's mostly there.
Yeah, well, as long as you don't look anywhere else, it's just all the mess is mostly there.
Sure.
Next up, it was time to fulfill a lifelong ambition and kiss the Blarney Stone. Now, don't think I'm stupid, but I didn't realize that the Blarney Stone was actually at the top of Blarney Castle. I also didn't realize that you were supposed to get there as early as you possibly could in the day, otherwise you had to queue. Luckily, because it's out of season and it's only March, we didn't have to queue for longer than about 25 minutes. If you've never been to the Blarney Castle or kissed the stone, you have to lie down on your back, bend over at some ridiculous angle, and kiss the stone that's a good foot below where you are. It is a bit of an athletic achievement.
Yay! That was a bigger smooch than I planned for.
I had a proper smooch too. Do you feel like you have the gift of the gab?
I don't know.
Are you eloquent?
No.
You did it though.
Yeah, that was— it was when I was hanging upside down.
For dinner, now that she's got the gift of the gab, she persuaded me that fish and chips and a battered burger was the only option.
Battered burger, right?
I'm just spending all my life filming you eating and drinking stuff.
You are.
Right, so what we got?
It's a battered burger.
A battered burger? Yeah. So it's literally a beef burger in batter?
I guess so.
Go on then.
Very messy.
It's gonna be really hot. Tell us this Irish— I would have thought battered stuff was more Scottish than Irish, but perhaps I'm wrong.
I don't know, it just makes me think of the battered Mars bars.
Yeah, but I've never had one of them either. I don't think it's gonna be that hot. Okay, my bad.
I mean, yeah, it's pretty good.
After I put JD back on the air coach to Dublin Airport, I spent 2 days at Cove Harbour. Spelt Cob. Don't miss the incredible cathedral there, and also a trip into the Titanic Museum is well worth doing. They've got a fantastic aire at Cobh which has got all the facilities you need for just £10 a night. And that was it. I was on my way to start the Wild Atlantic Way, the world's longest coastal road trip. Join me on the journey as I find epic roads, truly mesmerizing beaches, And, uh, seaweed baths. If you're new to the channel and want to carry on with the journey, then feel free to subscribe, and I'll see you on the next video. Thanks for watching.
