Attraction in County Cork

Bantry House stands on the shore of Bantry Bay in County Cork, one of the largest natural harbours in the world, and is one of the finest and most beautifully situated country houses in Ireland. The house was built in the early eighteenth century and enlarged into its present impressive form during the early nineteenth century for the White family, later Earls of Bantry, who assembled within it one of the most significant collections of Continental European decorative art and furniture to be found in any Irish house. The building is still occupied by the White family and is open to visitors, making it an unusually authentic example of a great Irish house that has retained both its contents and its family connection. The exterior setting of Bantry House is exceptional. The house looks south across the full width of Bantry Bay toward the mountains of the Beara Peninsula, with the long blue-grey expanse of the bay and the dramatic mountain backdrop creating one of the most compelling views from any house in Ireland. The formal terraced gardens stepping up the hillside behind the house provide elevated viewing platforms from which the relationship between the architecture and its spectacular landscape setting can be fully appreciated. The combination of the house, the terraces and the bay makes this one of the most photographed locations in west Cork. The interior of Bantry House contains an extraordinary accumulation of French and Continental European furniture, Gobelin and Aubusson tapestries, Russian icons, Spanish leather panels and decorative objects assembled by successive generations of the White family during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The quality and breadth of the collection is remarkable by any standard, reflecting both the family's wealth during the peak of their prosperity and their access to the great houses and auction rooms of Europe. The Armada exhibition in the courtyard adds a further historical dimension, commemorating the French fleet that took shelter in Bantry Bay in 1796 in an abortive attempt to land troops in support of the United Irishmen rebellion. Bantry itself is a pleasant market town with good restaurants and the weekly Friday market, and the surrounding west Cork landscape of Sheep's Head, Beara and Mizen provides some of Ireland's finest coastal and mountain scenery.

Blarney Castle near Cork City is one of the most internationally famous tourist attractions in Ireland, a well-preserved fifteenth-century tower house in its own extensive woodland estate that draws visitors from across the world to kiss the celebrated Blarney Stone set into the battlements near the top of the castle. The tradition of kissing the stone to acquire the gift of eloquent and persuasive speech is one of the most enduring and widely known pieces of Irish cultural mythology, and the long queues of visitors waiting to lean backwards over the parapet to reach the stone have become one of the characteristic images of Irish tourism. The castle was built in its current form by Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, King of Munster, around 1446 and represents one of the largest and best-preserved tower houses in Ireland. The tower rises to approximately 26 metres and the stonework, though worn and lichen-covered, retains considerable structural integrity. The climb to the battlements involves a succession of narrow spiral stairs that emerge onto the roofline where the Blarney Stone is set slightly below the parapet level, requiring visitors to lie on their backs with their heads extending beyond the wall to kiss the underside of the stone, a manoeuvre that provides a simultaneously terrifying and absurd experience that most visitors regard with good humour. The grounds of Blarney Castle are considerably larger and more varied than many visitors expect. The woodland gardens extending beyond the castle contain a series of named areas including the Rock Close, an informal garden around a stream and glacial boulders that has been associated since the eighteenth century with druidical worship and fairy legends, the Witch's Kitchen, the Druids' Cave and a set of wishing steps reputed to grant wishes to those who walk them backwards with eyes closed. The combination of ancient woodland, informal garden design and romantic mythological associations makes the garden as rewarding as the castle for many visitors.

Garnish Island, known in Irish as Ilnacullin, in Glengarriff Harbour in County Cork is one of the finest gardens in Ireland, a small island transformed in the early twentieth century by Annan Bryce and the garden designer Harold Peto from a rocky and largely bare islet into a garden of extraordinary beauty and botanical richness. The combination of the formal Italian garden at the heart of the island, the extensive informal plantings of exotic trees and shrubs from across the Southern Hemisphere and the views of the surrounding mountains and harbour from every part of the island create a garden of remarkable variety in an island setting of complete enchantment. The warm Gulf Stream microclimate of Glengarriff Harbour, sheltered from north and east winds by the surrounding mountains, allows plants from New Zealand, South America, the Mediterranean and South Africa to grow in the open in conditions impossible on the Irish mainland. The Casita garden, an Italian formal garden of considerable architectural quality, provides the structural centrepiece of the island design, while the surrounding plantings of rare conifers, rhododendrons, tree ferns and tender shrubs fill the rest of the island in a tour of the Southern Hemisphere's most remarkable plants. The colony of basking seals on the rocks around the island and the boat crossing from Glengarriff village add to the experience of a garden destination that is entirely appropriate in its island setting, the journey across the harbour being an essential part of the Garnish visit rather than a mere practical necessity.