Tuesday – Bantry House

On Bantry Bay is Bantry town, where Bantry House is set up like a home and is full of amazing art and antiques.

In the 17th century it was originally a small Queen Anne house called Blackrock.

In the 1820's Richard the Earl of Bantry enlarged the house by adding the tow side drawing rooms.

It was his son who travelled around and collected all of the art and antiques that

are now in the house. It has been kept in the family all that time.

It is a museum now with a few sections of it set aside as a working bed and breakfast, a restaurant and part of it closed off for the private residence of the family.

The house is very large.

Each room had a name and most of the items in each room were labeled with a short description of their origin. It was so interesting.

Even the hallways, that were very wide, were laid out with interesting things. Everything was gorgeous. furniture from Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette rugs and wall hangings, letters from Lord Nelson and more furniture from Charles III to name just a few.

Then we went out to the stables They did not have any horses there anymore and were using the stables for offices and storage of equipment required for the grounds But they were still impressive in themselves. Each stall had a carved stone horse head above it.

I would love to stay at the bed and breakfast.

You can even get married there. How cool is that!

There were other gardens around the house and each was well kept and interesting with a different theme.

We had a great lunch at the Tea Room restaurant. I had Crepes with Camembert with sweet chili sauce and a spinach salad. I have to get that recipe.

We stayed at least two hours on the grounds and in the house and could have easily spent more time there but we had a ways to go and had to be on our way.