Bantry Bay: Encyclopedia - Bantry Bay

Bantry Bay

Bantry Bay is a bay located in southwest Ireland, in County Cork. The bay runs approximately 35 km (22 miles) from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km (1.8-to-2.5 miles) wide at the head, and 10 km (6 miles) wide at the entrance.

The town of Bantry, at the head of the bay, is notable as being the place where the first attempt to land was made by Wolfe Tone in 1796, when he brought over French soldiers to assist in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The square in Bantry is named for Tone.

The longboat used in that landing, lay in Bantry House until 1944, when it was presented to the National Museum of Ireland. It was lent to the Maritime Institute of Ireland who exhibited it in their museum at the Old Mariners’ Church, Dun Laoghaire. It is currently (2005) being restored at the Liverpool Museum.

The bay is a deep and large natural harbor (or harbour), with one of the longest inlets in southwest Ireland, bordered on the north by Beara Peninsula, it separates Bantry Bay from Kenmare Bay. The southern boundary is Sheep's Head Peninsula, separating Bantry Bay from Dunmanus Bay. The main islands in the bay are Bere Island and Whiddy Island. Bere Island is located near the entrance to the bay on the north side, across from the villages Curryglass, and Castletown Bearhaven. The town of Rerrin is the largest settlement on the island. The village of Ballynakilla is also located there. Whiddy Island is at the head of the bay near the south shore. It is the main petroleum terminus for Ireland, the harbor ideally suited for large ocean going tankers. ConocoPhillips now maintains a Single Point Mooring (SPM) at the Whiddy Island oil terminal.

51 people were killed on January 8, 1979 when a French oil tanker, the Betelgeuse, was offloading at Whiddy when it caught fire, exploded, and broke into three pieces.

The bay has had numerous shipwrecks over the years. While clean up efforts were under way for the Betelgeuse using sonar sweeps, the French frigate La Surveillante, which had been scuttled, due to damage from a storm, north of Whiddy Island in 2 January 1797, was found in 1981.

Towns and villages around the bay include: Adrigole, Bantry, Ballylickey, Cahermore, Cappanolsha, Castletownbere (Castletown Bearhaven), Curryglass, Foilakill, Gerahies, and Glengarriff.

Main routes that follow parts of the bay include the R572 (part of the "Ring of Beara") and the N71.

The Banrty Bay Golf Club is at the head of the bay, across from Whiddy Island. The O'Sullivan Beara Castle Dunboy is just across from Bere Island. "Copper John" Puxley's Manor is in Dunboy.

Bantry Bay - Geographical stats

• Latitude: 51°42' N (51.700)
• Longitude: 9°28' W (-8.533)
• UNCTAD code: IEBYT

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bantry Bay", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki