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Luxury Private Day Tour to Blarney Castle
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From €1095 per person
This private day tour takes you south from Dublin through the Irish countryside to two of the country’s most celebrated historic sites - the Rock of Cashel and Blarney Castle - before a scenic tour of Cork City on the way back. You’ll spend around 6.5 hours travelling in a luxury Mercedes, with a professional, experienced guide beside you for the whole trip.
The Blarney Stone is the centrepiece, but there’s genuinely a lot more to the day than that - 70 acres of parkland and gardens, the ruins at Cashel, and Cork’s famous English Market.
Rock of Cashel (45 min) - Travelling south through Tipperary, you’ll stop at the Rock of Cashel, a dramatic hilltop complex of medieval ruins dating back to the 5th century. This was once the seat of the ancient Kings of Munster, and the views from the rock across the Golden Vale are worth the stop on their own.
Blarney Castle (120 min) - Arriving at lunchtime, you’ll have time to climb the castle and kiss the famous Blarney Stone, said to give the gift of eloquence to all who pucker up. The 70 acres of parkland and gardens surrounding the castle are beautiful, and there’s also time to browse Blarney Woolen Mills - the largest store in Ireland, housed in Ireland’s oldest and most authentic working woollen mill.
Cork City and the English Market (60 min) - On the way home, your guide will take you on a scenic tour of Cork City, with a chance to visit the English Market, which has been trading since 1788 and is one of Europe’s finest enclosed food markets.
Infants can travel in a pram or stroller, infant seats are available, and public transport options are available nearby. Suitable for all fitness levels. Conducted in English.
Note that entrance fees to both the Rock of Cashel and Blarney Castle and Gardens are not included in the tour price.
This is a private tour.
The Rock of Cashel rewards arriving early. Cashel is one of Ireland’s most visited heritage sites, and by 11am the coach parties have taken over. At the start of your day you’re well-placed to get there before ten - walk up from the car park (five minutes, not by car) and the approach on foot, watching the walls rise above the plain, is part of how the place works. Cormac’s Chapel, the 1134 Romanesque church with the only surviving medieval frescoes in Ireland, is smaller than photos suggest - get close to the carved tympanum above the door.
Walk down to Hore Abbey too. It’s free, it’s two minutes from the Rock car park, and it sits in an open field with direct sight-lines back up to the Rock. The 13th-century Cistercian ruins are roofless and unattended - no ticket office, no signage, no café. A quieter version of the same extraordinary landscape.
At Blarney, skip the queue and go straight to the grounds. If the Stone queue is long when you arrive, the Rock Close - a Victorian rock garden with standing stones, the Wishing Steps, and the Witch’s Kitchen - is quieter and genuinely worth an hour on its own. The Lake Walk behind the castle car park is another option: three kilometres of local countryside and not a tour bus in sight.
The word “blarney” has a better story than the Stone. Elizabeth I complained that Cormac MacCarthy kept sending her smooth talk and excuses instead of submitting to her authority. She called it “blarney.” The castle is real, the history is real, and the 1446 tower house survived Cromwell. Your guide knows all of it - ask on the way south when you have time.
Eight kilometres west of Cashel, on the River Suir, is Golden. The village sits quietly on the N74 but two kilometres south of it lies Athassel Priory - the largest medieval priory in Ireland by area, four acres of Augustinian nave, cloister and gatehouse, free to walk through, usually empty. If your guide has flexibility on the Cashel leg and you want something that most visitors on this route never find, Athassel is worth the ten-minute detour.