#datocurioso

¿Sabían que para obtener el famoso "don de la palabra" en el Castillo de Blarney, en Irlanda, no basta con tocar la piedra, sino que hay que besarla mientras se cuelga boca abajo a 27 metros de altura?

Este bloque de piedra caliza carbonífera, incrustado en la parte alta del torreón desde 1446, ha sido besado por millones de personas, incluyendo a figuras como Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan y Mick Jagger, quienes buscaban la habilidad de la persuasión y la adulación.

La leyenda cuenta que el constructor del castillo, Cormac McCarthy, obtuvo su gran elocuencia tras seguir el consejo de una anciana (o de la Reina de las Banshees, según la versión) de besar la primera piedra que encontrara camino a un juicio. Sin embargo, realizar el ritual hoy en día requiere que el visitante se acueste de espaldas, se agarre de unas barras de hierro y se incline hacia el vacío sobre el precipicio de las almenas para alcanzar la roca con los labios.

A pesar de ser uno de los puntos turísticos más concurridos, un estudio geológico reciente de la Universidad de Glasgow reveló un dato que desmiente algunos mitos sobre su origen: la piedra no fue traída de Escocia ni de las Cruzadas. Las pruebas de isótopos confirmaron que la piedra es caliza local de la región de Cork, lo que significa que siempre estuvo ahí, esperando a ser parte de la estructura del castillo mucho antes de que se convirtiera en un símbolo global de la comunicación.

#Irlanda #Historia #Blarney #Elocuencia #Castillo #Tradiciones

Northern Lights Over North Cork

You don’t expect to stand in a field north of Blarney and watch the northern lights, but here we are. Last night the aurora put on a show visible well into southern Ireland. Bands of pink and magenta hung across the sky, bleeding into that unmistakable green glow along the horizon. To the naked eye nothing could be seen, but the camera pulled out colours that made the whole scene look otherworldly.

A passing car lit up the bare trees on the ridge at just the right moment, backlighting them with a warm glow that played off the green aurora behind. It was one of those happy accidents you couldn’t plan if you tried. Even the electricity poles added something, a reminder that this was a country road in Cork, not the Arctic Circle. These events have become more frequent as we near solar maximum, so keep an eye on the Kp index and have a dark-sky spot in mind, because the next one might be even better.

Northern Lights Over North Cork

You don’t expect to stand in a field north of Blarney and watch the northern lights, but here we are. Last night the aurora put on a show visible well into southern Ireland. Bands of pink and magenta hung across thesky, bleeding into that unmistakable...

https://inphotos.org/2026/03/21/northern-lights-over-north-cork/

#astrophotography #aurora #AuroraBorealis #Blarney #Cork #GeomagneticStorm #Ireland #NightSky #NorthernLights #Photo #Photography #RuralIreland #stars

Bye Bye Hoppy

We said goodbye to our dear cat, Hoppy today. She was 18 years old, and the last of her family that was brought into our lives by their mother many years ago.

She was an adorable cat. She would accept rubs and loving ear scratches for as long as you'd do them.

https://inphotos.org/2025/11/25/bye-bye-hoppy/

#photo #photography #cat #catsofMastodon #Cork #Ireland #Blarney

A colourful sunrise

It was one of those mornings where the sun shone on the clouds from below the horizon and filled the sky with fiery colours!

I’ve been working on a WordPress plugin called Cloud Cover Forecast. It will show you the low, mid, and high clouds for a particular location in a block on your site. It’s inspired by Clear Outside. If you have a blog, take it for a whirl and let me know if it works for you! It’s not on WordPress.org yet, so you’ll have to install it manually by uploading the zip file.

#Blarney #Cork #dramaticClouds #Ireland #IrishLandscape #morningLight #morningSky #naturalBeauty #orangeSky #Photo #Photography #silhouettePhotography #Sky #Sun #sunrise

Cherry Blossoms in Bloom

Cherry blossoms bloom on a tree at the other end of my park every year, but I always forget to bring my camera to photograph it until this afternoon.

https://inphotos.org/2025/04/17/cherry-blossoms-in-bloom/

#photo #photography #CherryBlossom #Blarney #Cork #Ireland