Bantry

The past, present and future fuse in perfect unison in Bantry town which nestles at the head of beautiful ancient Bantry Bay. With a history stretching back to Neolithic times when humans left their first imprints here in places like Killnaruane just off the old Rope Walk, through to the tumultuous times of the French Armada and Theobald Wolfe Tone now commemorated in permanent form on Wolfe Tone Square, through the frenetic commercial mackerel and pilchard fisheries of the 19th and early 20th centuries to the busy modern cosmopolitan town with its fusion of modern and traditional streetscapes, Bantry town offers delights for all the senses.

Bantry, in the heart of West Cork, is a region of lush vegetation, palm trees, and semi-tropical flowers. Hemmed in by high mountain ridges, an azure blue sea, and cascading mountain streams, it is a place of unparalleled beauty where the landscape changes with every mood of wind and sky.

In this breath-taking splendour of mountain scenery, hilly pastures, meandering streams, lakes, and woods, where megalithic monuments and ruins of monastic settlements dot the country-side, visitors can find peace and tranquillity. The landscape is mountainous with parallel ridges running through the various peninsulas to the sea - mainly in a north-east/south-west direction. The rest of the terrain is occupied by valleys, hidden glens, hills, fast running rivers, woods, and forests.