Bantry House | |
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General information | |
Architectural style | Queen Anne with Georgian and Victorian additions [1] |
Town or city | Bantry |
Country | Ireland |
Coordinates | 51°40′37″N9°27′54″W / 51.677°N 9.465°W |
Completed | c.1710 (original house) c.1820 (additions) c.1845 (wings) [1] |
Website | |
bantryhouse.com |
Bantry House is a historic house with gardens in Bantry, County Cork, Ireland. Originally built in the early 18th century, it has been owned and occupied by the White family (formerly Earls of Bantry) since the mid-18th century. Opened to the public since the 1940s, the house, estate and gardens are a tourist destination in West Cork. [2]
Bantry House (originally called 'Blackrock') [3] was constructed in about 1710 on the South side of Bantry Bay. [1] In 1750, Councillor Richard White bought Blackrock from Samuel Hutchinson and changed the name to 'Seafield'. [3]
The Whites had settled on Whiddy Island across the Bay in the late 17th century, after having originally been merchants in Limerick. The family prospered and considerable purchases of land were made in the area surrounding the house. By the 1780s, Bantry House comprised approximately 80,000 acres (320 km2), though much of this would not be arable.[ citation needed ]
The house has been open to tourism since 1946. [2]
In 2012, Bantry House featured on an episode of Country House Rescue. [4]
The gardens to Bantry House were developed by Richard White, 2nd Earl of Bantry and his wife Mary. The gardens contain seven terraces; the house is located on the third. One hundred steps are located behind the house and fountain, and are surrounded by azaleas and rhododendron. [5]
By 1997 the grounds of Bantry House were suffering from neglect in certain places. A European grant was obtained to start the restoration process. Funding ceased in 2000. The restoration work is still ongoing.[ when? ]
An exhibition on the role Bantry House played in the United Irishmen Rebellion was opened in the courtyard of the house ahead of the rebellion's bi-centenary. [6] [7] The exhibition was designed to cover the French expedition to Ireland in 1796, and the role of Richard White, then owner of the house and later 1st Earl of Bantry, in opposing the attempted landings. Ultimately the French armada never landed, as severe weather resulted in the loss of several ships – including the frigate Surveillante. [8] The Armada Centre contained a scale model of the Surveillante and several artifacts recovered from its wreck.
Glengarriff is a village of approximately 140 people on the N71 national secondary road in the Beara Peninsula of County Cork, Ireland. Known internationally as a tourism venue, it has a number of natural attractions. It sits at the northern head of Glengarriff Bay, a smaller enclave of Bantry Bay.
Crosshaven is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It is located in lower Cork Harbour at the mouth of the River Owenabue, across from Currabinny Wood. Originally a fishing village, from the 19th century, the economy of the area became more reliant on a growing tourism industry.
Dunboy Castle is a ruined 15th-century castle on the Beara Peninsula in south-west Ireland near the town of Castletownbere. The castle's tower house and bawn were destroyed in the 1602 Siege of Dunboy, though its ruins remain open to the public.
Earl of Bantry, of Bantry in the County of Cork, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1816 for Richard White, 1st Viscount Bantry, who had helped repelling the French invasion at Bantry Bay in 1797. He had already been created Baron Bantry, of Bantry in the County of Cork, and Viscount Bantry, of Bantry in the County of Cork, in 1800, and was made Viscount Berehaven at the same time he was given the earldom. These titles were also in the Peerage of Ireland. He was the grandson of Richard White, who had made an immense fortune through his work as a lawyer. Lord Bantry was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. He sat on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords as an Irish representative peer from 1854 to 1868. His younger brother, the third Earl, assumed in 1840 by Royal licence the additional surname of Hedges, which was that of his paternal grandmother. He was an Irish Representative Peer from 1869 to 1884. The titles became extinct on the death of his son, the fourth Earl, in 1891.
Bantry is a town in the civil parish of Kilmocomoge in the barony of Bantry on the southwest coast of County Cork, Ireland. It lies in West Cork at the head of Bantry Bay, a deep-water gulf extending for 30 km (19 mi) to the west. The Beara Peninsula is to the northwest, with Sheep's Head peninsula to the southwest.
Blarney Castle is a medieval stronghold in Blarney, near Cork, Ireland. Though earlier fortifications were built on the same spot, the current keep was built by the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty, a cadet branch of the Kings of Desmond, and dates from 1446. The Blarney Stone is among the machicolations of the castle.
Castletownbere, or Castletown Berehaven, is a port town in County Cork, Ireland. It is on the Beara Peninsula by Berehaven Harbour.
Bantry Bay is a bay located in County Cork, Ireland. The bay runs approximately 35 km (22 mi) from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km wide at the head and 10 km (6.2 mi) wide at the entrance.
Beara or the Beara Peninsula is a peninsula on the south-west coast of Ireland, bounded between the Kenmare "river" to the north side and Bantry Bay to the south. It contains two mountain ranges running down its centre: the Caha Mountains and the Slieve Miskish Mountains. The northern part of the peninsula from Kenmare to near Ardgroom is in County Kerry, while the rest forms the barony of Bear in County Cork.
Spike Island is an island of 103 acres (42 ha) in Cork Harbour, Ireland. Originally the site of a monastic settlement, the island is dominated by an 18th-century bastion fort now named Fort Mitchel.
Whiddy Island is an island near the head of Bantry Bay in Ireland. It is approximately 5.6 km (3.5 mi) long and 2.4 km (1.5 mi) wide. The topography comprises gently-rolling glacial till, with relatively fertile soil. As late as 1880 the island had a resident population of around 450, mainly engaged in fishing and small-scale farming, but today the population has reduced to approximately 30 people. Previously home to Whiddy Island Naval Air Station, the island is noted for its oil terminal facilities – and the related Whiddy Island Disaster.
Mahon is an area to the south-eastern side of Cork, Ireland. Mahon gets its name from Lough Mahon, a wide stretch of the upper section of Cork Harbour. It was once a semi-rural peninsula, but from the late 20th century was subject to residential development, and has a number of housing estates and developments. The area was generally known as the Ring of Mahon, and is the site of Ringmahon House. Mahon is within the Cork South-Central Dáil constituency.
Historic Cork Gardens of County Cork, Ireland.
Kilcrohane is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It is the last coastal village on the Sheep's Head Peninsula after Durrus and Ahakista. Kilcrohane lies under the 'Shadow of Seefin' and is also close to Caher Mountain. The village overlooks Dunmanus Bay.
Joseph-Marie Nielly was a French naval officer and admiral.
Surveillante was an Iphigénie-class 32-gun frigate of the French Navy. She took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, where she became famous for her battle with HMS Quebec; in 1783, she brought the news that the war was over to America. She later took part in the French Revolutionary Wars, and was eventually scuttled during the Expédition d'Irlande after sustaining severe damage in a storm. The wreck was found in 1979 and is now a memorial.
The French expedition to Ireland, known in French as the Expédition d'Irlande, was an unsuccessful attempt by the French Republic to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republican group, in their planned rebellion against British rule during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French intended to land a large expeditionary force in Ireland during the winter of 1796–1797 which would join with the United Irishmen and drive the British out of Ireland. The French anticipated that this would be a major blow to British morale, prestige and military effectiveness, and was also intended to possibly be the first stage of an eventual invasion of Great Britain itself. To this end, the Directory gathered a force of approximately 15,000 soldiers at Brest under General Lazare Hoche during late 1796, in readiness for a major landing at Bantry Bay in December.
Richard White, 1st Earl of Bantry was an Anglo-Irish soldier and peer.
Macroom Castle, in the centre of the town of Macroom, was once residence and fortress of the Lords of Muskerry. The castle has changed owners many times, has been besieged, burned, and rebuilt. The MacCarthys of Muskerry owned it with some interruptions from about 1353 when Muskerry was given to Dermot MacCarthy, 1st Lord of Muskerry, until 1691 when Donogh MacCarthy, 4th Earl of Clancarty lost it definitively.
[Events of] 200 years ago [..] are to be remembered in the biggest series of events ever hosted by an Irish community of this size: Bantry Bay '96 [..] Bantry French Aramda Centre, an interpretative centre in the grounds of historic Bantry House, features the events of 1796 including a large scale [ship] model