A stone bearing the inscription “Cormac M’Carthy, Fortis Me Fieri Facit, A.D. 1446,” forms the sill of one of the machicolations on the south side of the tower, and being damaged during the siege in Cromwell’s time, has been supported with iron. The keep is gnomon in shape, the later rectangular tower being 60 feet by 36 feet, while the peel, which is half built into the north-west corner, forms a projection of 18 feet by 12 feet. The tower is about 120 feet high. The original entrance to the peel, which was 10 feet above the ground, is now built up, and access is gained by the large newel stair in the later building. What are called “the back stairs,” were the original flight belonging to the first tower. Here is situated the “Earl’s bedroom,” with a more modern bay window, and remnants of the tapestry which once covered the walls may still be seen. In the very top storey is situated a kitchen with two great fireplaces, and one of the now floorless rooms in this tower was probably the chapel. In the later portion of the keep is the store-room and guard chamber near the entrance, which is a low-pointed doorway once defended from above. The apartment in the third floor was most likely used as a reception room, above which the great banqueting hall is situated, with an elaborately-worked chimney, and a fireplace 12 feet wide. The tower on the south and east is finished by machicolated parapets, resting on fourteen corbels, and having a corresponding number of opens or crenelles above. The keep represents the fifteenth-century masonry, except where it is surmounted by the ogee parapet of brick work, which was seemingly added at the time the now ruined mansion to the east of the tower was built. This dwelling, erected by the Jeffreys family, was unroofed and its timber sold in 1821. What are locally called “the dungeons” are merely divisions in the well cavern, which was at one time connected with the castle by a covered passage now filled up. There seems to be great uncertainty as to the identity of the famous kissing stone, said to give a persuasive tongue to whoever touches it with his lips. The power of conferring this accomplishment appears to have been unknown in the early part of the nineteenth century. The inscribed stone already mentioned is generally supposed to be the true “Blarney stone,” chiefly, it seems because it has been carefully propped, and most likely had the mystic reputation conferred upon it when a slightly water-worn hollow stone situated on the parapet of the east side of the turret disappeared more than a quarter of a century ago. Again a stone bearing the date 1703, on the highest part of the north-east angle, and another engraved with a shamrock in relief have each been asserted to be the original stone. [Illustration: BLARNEY CASTLE.]