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Bantry Bay is one of the most beautiful bays that adorn the west coat of Europe. It shelters an oil port discreetly installed on the island of Whiddy.

In 1689, a French fleet sent by Louis XIV to aid of Jacques II faced in the bay Guillaume's vessels of Orange.
The most famous episode is situated in 1796: the French revolutionaries make leave on December 15 a powerful fleet of the port of Brest. About fifty vessels commanded by Hoche and the Irish Wolfe Tone should support the fight of the United Irishmen against the English. Scattered by the storm, what stays of the fleet arrives December 24 in Bantry Bay and gives up landing.

But the history does not stop there! A French skiff, the rowboat of " La Résolue", is kept as trophy and finally transferred to the maritime national museum of Dublin. it is henceforth known under the name of " Bantry skiff "

Bantry House:

It dates 1700s
In 1796 during the expedition of Hoche, it sheltered Richard White.
This one gaved evidence of loyalty to the English during this episode and was named Earl of Bantry
Bantry House was enlarged, embellished and furnished in the middle of the XIX-th by William White, 2nd Earl of Bantry, a man of considerable culture

Bantry House and his gardens dominates the sea

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