Kate Hamlyn discusses some key members of the MacCarthy Muskerry Clan, the Gaelic owners of Blarney Castle, whose fortunes rose and fell in line with their allegiance to the English throne
“… his Castle of Blarney …is one of the largest and strongest castles within the province of Munster, for it is four piles joined in one, seated upon a main rock, so that it is free from mining, the wall being eighteen feet thick and well flanked at each comer to the best advantage”. This description of Blarney, home of the Mac Carthy Muskerry chieftain, is in the Pacata Hibernia written in the late Elizabethan era and probably about 120 years after the castle was built.
