Bantry House

Photos of Bantry house

Rooms at Bantry House

Bantry House offers beautifully restored rooms in the East and West wings of the House. All ensuite, the rooms look out over the south facing garden and hundred steps. After enjoying breakfast in the dining room of the east wing, leisurely stroll through the main house, wander through the gardens, enjoy tea and cakes in the cafe or play a game of billiards. All Bed and Breakfast accommodation in the East and West Wings of the House overlook the Italianate Gardens, Fountain and Hundred Steps.

As Bantry House itself does not offer dinner in the evenings it is ideally situated within walking distance to Bantry's restaurants, pubs, cinema and attractions. You are however welcome to enjoy light lunches, teas, coffees, wine and beer in the tearoom.

The West Wing Cafe

The West Wing Café opened on March 15th 2008 under new management. Over the years Bantry House has produced quality food at good prices, and the new management wish to continue and build on this reputation. Situated within the Grounds of Bantry House, The West Wing Café offers you the opportunity to sample food with a difference: they strive to use high quality, locally-produced food sourced within a 50 mile radius where possible. Bantry House itself supplies a variety of the leaf salads, vegetables and herbs, and the meats here are provided by both of Bantry’s local butchers. The breads and cakes are baked fresh every morning.

The Cafe is are open for café meals seven days a week. During summer peak time (mid-May through September) the cafe also offers an evening menu specializing in light informal food. Please ask Kathleen the manager for updates on our times and offerings.

History of Bantry House

The White family first settled on Whiddy Island in the 17th century but purchased a small Queen Ann house called Blackrock on the mainland. This was to become known as Bantry House. About 1820 Richard, the first Earl of Bantry, enlarged the house by adding the two drawing rooms. It was his son, then Viscount Berehaven, who travelled extensively and amassed an eclectic collection of tapestries, paintings, furniture and artefacts.

Bantry House is the ancestral home of the Earls of Bantry, still lived in by their descendant Egerton & Brigitte Shelswell-White, and their family. Since 1946 the house containing its important collection of furniture, tapestries and objets d'art has been open to the public.

The structure of the garden as we know it today, dates back to the second Earl of Bantry’s travels. Both he and Mary, his wife, travelled with notebooks and sketchbooks (now in the Archive at University College Cork) at hand, which helped to transform the small house at home into a “palazzo” comparable to those he had seen on the continent. The ‘Cardinal Rule’ to be applied was that house, garden and site must be a unit, as if one could not have been conceived without the others. He terraced the land around the house, seven terraces in all, with the house sitting on the third terrace. A parterre facing south surrounding a wisteria circle which again surrounds a fountain was also created. From there rise the famous Hundred Steps, a monumental staircase built of local stone, set amidst azaleas and rhododendron. The garden, indeed the whole demesne, had fallen into great neglect over many years.

In 1997, due to the offer of EEC grant, the decision was taken to start restorationwork on the garden. The grant came to an end in 2000, but thankfully work in the garden is ongoing. Woodland is being cleared and maintenance of the restored areas kept to a high standard.

Bantry House is the ancestral home of the Earls of Bantry, still lived in by their descendant Egerton & Brigitte Shelswell-White, and their family. Since 1946 the house containing its important collection of furniture, tapestries and objets d'art has been open to the public.

Your visit includes a self guided tour of the house.
Complimentary information sheets are available at the House reception. The family look forward to welcoming you to their home.

A visit to Bantry House includes a self guided tour of the house. Complimentary information sheets are available at the House reception. The family look forward to welcoming you to their home.

The following locations are in close proximity to Bantry House

West Cork/Beara Peninsula (15 mins drive to Glengariff, one of the starting points)

Home to some of the most breathtaking scenery in Ireland, and offering the broadest range of activities, entertainment, cuisine and accommodation imaginable, West Cork provides a range of options that allow you to tailor your holiday to suit your personal needs and desires.  The appeal of the Beara Peninsula lies in its startling beauty, best experienced by climbing the hills & cycling the roads.  It’s a lot bigger and much wider than Sheeps Head Peninsula to the south and occupies part of both Cork & Kerry.  While there is lush greenery (reminiscent of the Ireland imagined by long departed emigrants) amid rocky scenery on the Mizen Head and Sheeps Heah Peninsulas, the Beara is a desolate, harsh, rocky landscape.  It makes wonderful waking country and is littered with pre-historic rocks, stone circles and old tombs. 

Kinsale (2 hours)

Located just 16 miles from Cork City in a naturally protected harbour, Kinsale is one of the most picturesque, popular and fashionable towns on the south-west coast. Kinsale is a centre for yachting, sea angling, gourmet eating and golf. Restaurants in Kinsale pride themselves on their high reputation for culinary expertise, and the Good Food Circle has been organizing a Gourmet Festival here every autumn for over 25 years.  A charming town, its narrow streets are steeped in history and its harbour is always full of boats. Visit the museum housed in the French Prison or, just outside the town, the star-shaped Charles Fort with its spectacular views, before retiring to one of the town's many cozy atmospheric pubs.

Kenmare (40 mins)

Kenmare, with its pastel coloured houses, is the usual starting point for the Ring of Kerry round trip.  The small town, founded by a handful of Englishmen in 1670, has every tourist convenience imaginable, including 2 of the most luxurious hotels in Ireland, both of which have been awarded the much coveted Michelin star: the Park Hotel and Sheen Falls Lodge.  A trip round the peninsula of Iveragh should not be missed; it has some of the most magnificent landscape in Europe, as any of the hundreds of people on bicycles, motorbikes, cars and busses traveling the 110 mile long coast road will tell you.  Starting the Ring of Kerry trip from Kenmare means that you will meet the countless busses from Killarney going the other way instead of being stuck behind them!

Ring of Kerry (1 hour 30 mins to Killorglin, one of the starting points)

The Ring of Kerry is the best-known touring route, 110 miles (176 km) long. It circles the Iveragh Peninsula through mountain passes, forests, bogs, skirting rivers, lakes and beautiful beaches. The Ring of Kerry, as its name suggests, is a circular signposted route that passes through Killarney, Killorglin, Glenbeigh, Kells, Caherciveen, Waterville , Caherdaniel, Sneem and Kenmare. To the north of the Iveragh Peninsula is Dingle Bay and to its south is the estuary of the Kenmare River . Off its western edge is Valentia Island , which can be reached by road from a bridge at Portmagee and by car ferry from Reenard Point near Caherciveen. The ferry operates all day every day from 8:30 am to 10:30 pm , April 1 to September 30.  (066) 947-6141; fax 947-6377. The harbor at Valentia is Europe ’s most westerly and it was here that the first transatlantic cable was brought ashore in 1858.

Derrynane House , the ancestral home of Daniel O’Connell, also known as The Liberator, is worth a short detour off the Ring of Kerry near Caherdaniel. It’s run by the State Heritage Service and its gardens and the lovely beach nearby are now all part of the Derrynane Historic National Park .

Eight miles off the coast from Ballinskelligs near Waterville are the Skelligs – a group of small and fascinating islands. Monks landed on Skellig Mhichíl (pronounced “michael”) in the sixth century and built their monastery 600 feet up on a cliff; its ruins stand starkly out from the bare black cliff. They survived there for 600 years by trading with passing ships, before moving to the mainland at Ballinskelligs in the 12th century. Little Skellig is home to over 20,000 pairs of breeding gannets, and Great Skellig has about 5,000 pairs of puffins, as well as a large number of other birds, including guillemots, stormy petrels and Manx shearwaters.

Next to the road bridge to Valentia Island at Portmagee, you can visit the Skellig Experience and learn all about the islands, their history, and their birds. You can also ask about boat trips to tour them.