The Castle and Stone have never been our only attractions.
Anna Maria Fielding and her husband Samuel Hall visited and wrote in Ireland, its Scenery, Characters etc (1840...
“We visited ‘the sweet Rock Close’ – it well deserves the epithet – during a sunny day in June; and never can we forget the fragrant shade afforded by the luxuriant evergreens which seem rooted in the limestone rock; the little river Comane is guarded by a natural terrace, fringed by noble trees; several of the spaces between are grottos – natural also; some with seats, where many a love tale has been told, and will be, doubtless, as long as Cork lads and lasses indulge in picnic fetes...
We wandered from the shades of the Rock Close across the green and richly-wooded pastures that lead to the lake. The scene here is English rather than Irish, but every step is hallowed by a legend: it is implicitly believed that the last Earl of Clancarty who inhabited the castle committed the keeping of his plate to the deepest waters, and that it will never be recovered until a MacCarthy be again lord of Blarney.”
Rock Close is still as sweet, legends are at every step, but as for treasure...