Secret of the Blarney Stone revealed
The secret of Ireland's famous 'Blarney Stone' has been revealed thanks to the discovery of a possibly unique 19th century microscopic slide cut from the famous rock at Blarney Castle, near Cork. Said to bestow eloquence, or 'the gift of the gab' on anyone who kisses it, the stone which is embedded in the battlements of the castle, is steeped in rumour and myth with little published evidence of its true nature. There are various legends about the origins of the stone: an entry on Wikipedia says that it is a 'bluestone' like those at Stonehenge. Elsewhere it's claimed that it was part of the true Stone of Destiny, given to Cormac MacCarthy by a grateful Robert the Bruce following victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Various other accounts suggest associations with Moses, King David, or with the death of St Columba, but there is no clear source for these speculations. Now geologists at the University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum can reveal the true nature of the Blarney Stone after studying the historic microscope slide, containing a slice of the stone ground so thin that it is transparent to light. Analysis indicates the Blarney Stone is a limestone, made of the mineral calcite, and containing recrystallized and slightly deformed fragments of fossil brachiopod shells and bryozoans.
