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Easter to 30th October 2017
April, May, September, October; Tuesdays to Sundays and bank holidays; 10am-5pm
June, July, August: Open daily
Daily guided tour of the house at 2pm, duration 45 minutes.
Appointments recommended for all groups and mandatory for guided tours.
only for guided tours with a family member.
May, June & July
Wisteria Circle (May) parterre, hundred steps, woodland walks (all year) sunken garden (July, August)
Adult €11; Concessions €8; Child €3; Family day ticket €26; Season Garden Pass €10
Garden only: €5
All park in main coachpark where tickets are sold
Limited access for the disabled. Groups needing lunch should book in advance. Picnics in coachpark only Please check for upcoming events on own website.
Wisteria Circle, Hundred Steps, Italianate Gardens & Fountain and spectacular views House contains an important collection of furniture, tapestries and objets d'art
Bantry House offers 6 rooms bed and breakfast in the main house
The Fish Kitchen, O'Connors
Seaview House Hotel, Ballylickey
Wild Atlantic Way Schull Skibbereen Clonakilty Garnish Island Mizen Head
The second Earl of Bantry 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 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.
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 restoration work 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 Brigitte Shelswell-White and her family.