Bantry House and Garden is a stately home situated on the Wild Atlantic Way overlooking Bantry Bay in the south west of Ireland. It houses an important private collection of furniture and objects of art. It was home to Captain Richard White and the White family for many centuries before the house was made open to the public in 1946 and was later inherited by Egerton Shelswell-White in 1978. In 1987 the East Wing of the house was restored to be used as a Bed and Breakfast

The gardens, as we see them today, have gone from creation (by Richard White ,2nd Earl of Bantry), through neglect (from 1930’s-1970’s) to restoration (which began in 1997).

Richard White (1800-1865) fully appreciated his good fortune to inherit a title and a fine house in an extraordinary location. He created a garden with seven terraces to complement the bay overlooked by his house, which he enlarged to accommodate the art collection he formed on his travels.

The fountain within the parterre surrounded by Wisteria sineis and Wisteria floribunda dominates the southern aspect of the house as do the hundred steps leading up to the woodland. The north terraces, with their 14 round beds, are flanked by statues and pots Richard brought from his travels. Facing East, the statue of Diana the Huntress greets the visitor