Bantry Republic of Ireland

Our first priority on the morning of Thursday 2 September, well our first priority after breakfast, was to complete the formalities for arriving in Ireland.  We left the dinghy on the new-looking and empty visitors’ pontoon just to port of the harbour entrance proper and asked direction to the Harbourmaster’s office.  It turned out that the office is located the Old Courthouse at the far end of the main square (Wolf Tone Square), about a 5min walk from the pontoon.  The chap behind the desk was very welcoming and having ascertained that we had completed the Irish Passenger Locator Form online prior to our arrival, told us that there was no additional paperwork to complete nor any charges for anchoring.

He gave us fairly vague directions to the Customs office and we subsequently ended up on a walking tour of the town, without locating Customs.  In the end, the librarian gave us directions (and a map!) and we found the office was just a 2 minutes’ stroll from the Bantry Bay Port Office!  Like the port office, it was hardly a bustling hive of activity and there was little paperwork for us to complete there either but at least we had now fully and officially arrived.

Wolf Tone Square

By this point we had seen much of the small town already but after a coffee to recover from our exertions so far, we set about quartering the remaining parts of Bantry.

It’s a moderately busy little place in September, clearly something of a regional centre with a surprising array of shops ranging from pretty high end to bargain basement.  And, of course, pubs, bars and eateries to go with that range.

Roth Muilinn Mill wheel outside the library

We found a fish shop and restaurant that looked good and bought a kilo of local mussels to cook for dinner. (It seemd like the right choice after we had just navigated past lots of local mussel farms).  We also noted that the town’s outdoor market takes place on a Friday.  How unusual to turn up somewhere and find that the market is due to happen the next day, rather than to find that it happened the day before your arrival!

Local mussels for dinner

So, the next morning, after an excellent moules frites chez Blue Velvet, we returned to Bantry to try out the market.

Wolf Tone Square on market morning (Friday)

It was a surprisingly large affair with stalls selling everything from what looked to be the contents of the family garage/loft; to stalls with tools, hardware and workmen’s clothes; to ones selling local gifts and crafts; to food stalls of take-away food or selling fruit, veg and some lovely looking breads.  We bought a fruit loaf, which we hoped was like Guernsey gâche but turned out to be a less tasty imitation, plus some pricey, but delicious, organic soft fruit.

Market-fix complete we stopped by the large and very well-stocked SuperValu supermarket, conveniently located in a brand-new building about 50 yards from the visitors’ pontoon.  Here we stocked up on all the essentials for the next week or so.  Our plan for the afternoon was to make the short hope to Glengariff before heading on to more of the small harbours and anchorages around the southwest tip of Ireland.  Quite how far up the coast we would get we had no idea but we were pretty sure that food shopping didn’t get much easier than in Bantry ,so we made sure we’d made the most of it before moving on.

Bantry, Republic of Ireland