Bantry Bay (Irish: Cuan Baoi / Inbhear na mBárc / Bádh Bheanntraighe) 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 (1.8-to-2.5 miles) wide at the head and 10 km (6.2 mi) wide at the entrance.
Bantry Inshore Search & Rescue Association (BISRA) provides an emergency lifeboat service to the Bantry Harbour community. Equipped with a high speed rescue RIB BISRA is a declared resource of the Irish Coastguard.
The bay is a deep (approx 40 metres in the middle) and large natural bay, with one of the longest inlets in southwest Ireland, bordered on the north by Beara Peninsula, which 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 of the island is Berehaven Harbour and Castletown Bearhaven port . 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 harbour ideally suited for large oceangoing tankers. ConocoPhillips now maintains a Single Point Mooring (SPM) at the Whiddy Island oil terminal. Bantry Bay was featured during a famous Gulf Oil commercial showing the supertanker "Universe Kuwait" that aired during Apollo space coverage in 1971
The Bantry Bay is a bay located in the Garigal National Park in Middle Harbour within Sydney Harbour, in New South Wales, Australia. It was named after Bantry Bay in Ireland.
Aboriginal occupation of the area is evident through the abundance of middens along the foreshore.
The Warringah Shire Council minutes of 4 January 1907 reveal how unpopular was the government's proposal to take over Bantry Bay, which was a very popular recreation area for many residents of Sydney, and had been visited regularly by day trippers since the 1840s, but by 1910 work on the construction of the new explosives magazines at Bantry Bay had commenced.
Bantry Bay was used to store military explosives. The storage complex consisted of nine explosives magazines which replaced old hulks that had been used to store explosives in nearby Powder Hulk Bay on Sydney Harbour. In 1915 the works were handed over to the state Explosives Department, which regulated the explosives industry in NSW. In 1973 operations at Bantry Bay were discontinued and the facility was closed.
There are several locations named Bantry Bay:
Bantry (Irish: Beanntraí, meaning "(place of) Beann's people") is a town in the civil parish of Kilmocomoge in the barony of Bantry on the coast of West County Cork, Ireland. It lies 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 also nearby, on the peninsula south of Bantry Bay.
The focus of the town is a large square, formed partly by infilling of the shallow inner harbour. In former times, this accommodated regular cattle fairs; after modernising as an urban plaza, it now features a colourful weekly market and occasional public functions.
As with many areas on Ireland's south-west coast, Bantry claims an ancient connection to the sixth-century saint Breandán (Naomh Bréanainn) the Navigator. In Irish lore, Saint Breandán was the first person to discover America.
In past centuries Bantry was a base for major pilchard fisheries, and was visited by fishing fleets from Spain, France and the Netherlands. Wolfe Tone Square in the town commemorates Theobald Wolfe Tone. Dublin-born Tone led the republican United Irishmen in what he had hoped would be a local re-run of the recent French Revolution; this was to be achieved with the help of French Republicans in overthrowing British rule (see 1798 rebellion). The ill-fated French invasion fleet arrived in Bantry Bay and Berehaven Harbour in 1796, but its purpose was frustrated by unfavourable winds. For his efforts in preparing the local defenses against the French, Richard White, a local landowner, was created Baron Bantry in 1797 by a grateful British administration. A Viscountcy followed in 1800 and in 1816 he became the 1st Earl of Bantry. The noted mansion and gardens in the Bantry House demesne on the outskirts of the town testify to the family's status; the estate includes the "Armada Centre" devoted to the historic event.
Bantry (Irish: Beanntraí) is a barony in the west of County Cork in Ireland.Patrick Weston Joyce said the name Beanntraí means "descendants of Beann [Ban]", a son of Conchobar mac Nessa; similarly for the Wexford barony of Bantry.
The barony contains the town of Bantry and the top of Bantry Bay in its south east, including Whiddy Island. It is bordered by the baronies of Bear to the west, Carbery West (West Division to the south and East Division to the southeast), and Muskerry West to the northeast. To the north is County Kerry.
Baronies were created after the Norman invasion of Ireland as divisions of counties and were used the administration of justice and the raising of revenue. While baronies continue to be officially defined units, they have been administratively obsolete since 1898. However, they continue to be used in land registration and in specification, such as in planning permissions. In many cases, a barony corresponds to an earlier Gaelic túath which had submitted to the Crown.
As I'm sitting all alone in the gloaming,
It might have been but yesterday
That we watched the fisher sails all homing
Till the little herring fleet at anchor lay.
Then the fisher girls with baskets a swinging,
Came running down the old stone way.
Every lassie to her sailor lad was singing
A welcome to Bantry Bay.
Then we heard the pipers sweet note running,
And all the lassies turned to hear;
As they mingled with a soft voice crooning,
Till the music floated down the wooden pier,
Save you kindly Colleens all! said the piper,
Hands across the trip while I play,
And a tender sound of song and merry dancing,
Stole softly over Bantry Bay.
As I'm sitting alone in the gloaming
The shadows of the past draw near.
And I see the loving faces round me
That used to glad the old brown pier.
Some are gone upon their last homing
Some are left but they are old and gray,
And we're waiting for the tide in the gloaming,
To sail upon the Great Highway,
To the land of rest unending,