About 1700 an unknown architect was entrusted with the task of building a house on the South side of Bantry Bay and he was blessed with a site which must have been the envy of his compromise and has aroused admiration from thousands in the years since. Situated with a hillside behind and with breathtaking vistas across the Bay to the Caha Mountains, there can be few places in the world more fascinating whether the day is wet or fine. From the House the Bay seems like a private lake and sprinkled on it are the joyously named Hog, Rabbit, Horse and Lousy Castle Islands together with the more fascinating whether the day is wet or fine. From the House the Bay seems like a private lake and sprinkled on it are the joyously named Hog, Rabbit, Horse and Lousy Castle Islands together with the more recently famous Whiddy Islands together with the more recently famous Whiddy Island. The names conjure up daydreams as to how they came about. Was the really lousy? How and when did the rabbits get on to their island? And so on. Happily, Whiddy, which is the largest, has been able to absorb the oil tanks of the transhipment terminal and they are not visible from the Bantry side of the Bay.

It was on Whiddy that the White family first settled in the area during the latter part of the 17^th century. They were almost certainly descended from the family of White who are first mentioned in Limerick in 1654. A Simon White was given a grant of land at Knocksentry in 1662. However, it is possible that the family came to Ireland as early as 1227 and research to establish this fact is continuing.

Councillor Richard White was a farmer and he lived quietly on Whiddy Island. He bought land around Bantry, mainly from the Earl of Anglesey, from whom who he bought Blackrock (today Bantry House) in 1750. Blakrock had been the home of the Hutchins family, who leased it from the Annesley’s for two generations or more. He continued buying land and was eventually the largest landowner in the area, owing most of the land between Bantry and Ccastletownbere.

Simon and Frances had had two sons. Richard was born in 1767 and Simon a yeaar later.

Richard, after completing his education at Harrow School, where he participated in a rebellion against the Headmaster, returned to Bantry and settled down to a quiet life. He consolidated the lands. Though he and settled down to a quiet life He consolidated the lands. Though he was a staunch supporter of the Government he was not active in the political field nor did he take any particular interest in social affairs, but he was very fair with his tenants and consequently was well liked in the town and surrounding parts.

Simon inherited lands around Glengarriff including the Castle and married Sarah Newenham by whom he had four children. He died in 1838.

The attempted invasion of Ireland led by Wolfe Tone and supported by the French General Hoche took place in December 1796. This had a profound effect on the fortunes of Richard White and his descendants.

Fort some years a band of Irishmen calling themselves “The United Irishmen” had been trying to free themselves from British rule. The recent American and French revolutions gave them fresh encouragement and, like the Americans, they found support from the French. Finally, in December 1796, a fleet of 43 ships carrying 16,000 men led by Wolfe Tone and under the command of General Hoche set sail from Brest. But they encountered a devastating gale and only 16 ships and 6,000 men etched Bantry Bay. And General Houche himself was not on any of the ships, which did arrive. After waiting several days for the est of the fleet to appear, this part returned to France taking a bitterly disappointed Wolfe Tone with it.

On land, things appeared very different. On December 23^rd a large fleet had been sighted across the mouth of the Bay. By now Richard was thoroughly alarmed and sent urgent information to British Army Headquarters in Cork.

By Christmas Day the gales had become even stronger and General Dalrymple came from Cork to take command of the situation. At the invitation of Richard he set up his headquarters in the newly renamed Bantry House and it was here that a captured French naval officer was brought before him. The Officer, Lieutenant Proiteau, his crew and the longboat were captured while crossing from “El Resolu” to another French ship. (The longboat was preserved at Bantry House until 1944 when it was presented to the National Museum, Dublin, by Clodagh Shelswell-White. It can now be seen in the national Maritime Museum, Dun Laoire).

During the night of December 28^th the gales again increased and the French fleet was driven out to sea. Next morning not a ship was in sight.

On 30^th December cannonading was heard the direction of Berehaven and everyone in Bantry hoped that it was British fleet attacking the French. In fact it was the second part of the French fleet which had finally arrived and was attacking and plundering two merchant ships, one American, which had strayed into the area. It became apparent that these ships were not the same ones which had come earlier, and later it was learnt that they were the stragglers from the original storm who were now waiting for the rest of the fleet which had in fact already come- and gone back to France.

On 4^th January 1797, there were still 13 ships in the Bay and a peasant was allowed on board one of them to sell fresh food. He was asked how many troops were on shore and he replied “20,000”. In reality there were only about 400, but his estimate was accept. He also told the French that Admiral Lord Bridport and the British Fleet were just round the cape – a fact which was generally believed on sore but was entirely false as the alarm had only that day been received by Lord Bridport in Portsmouth. This information was too much for the demoralised, leaderless and seasick French who forthwith seat for France. The would-be invasion was over.

Richard White could not be said to have repelled the invasion – the weather had done that. But he had done all the right things in altering the army, placing his home at home at the disposal of the General, raising the “Bantry Cavalary” and affording all such assistance as was requested of him. He was rewarded in March 1797 by being created Baron Bantry.

In 1799 he married Lady Margaret Anne Hare, daughter of Viscount. He continued to enjoy the farming life and lived on his by now very large estates though hampered by shortage of money. In 1816 Viscount Berehaven – the latter title as is customary being assumed by his eldest son.

Viscount Berehaven was cast in a very different mould. From an early age he travelled extensively all over Europe, going as far afield as Poland and Russia and spending much time in France and Italy. He bought items of furniture and furnishings wherever he went and between 1820 and 1840 sent many shiploads back to Bantry.

In 1836 Viscount Berehaven married Lady Mary O’Brien, daughter of the 2^nd Marquis of Thomond. This family was descended from Brien Boroihme, the last of the Kings of Ireland in the 11^th century.

By this time his collection made it essential that the small Georgian house, though it had already been enlarged by the addition of the two main drawing rooms and the bedrooms above about 1820, should be added to. Richard drew up the plans and supervised the building of the house until it assumed the form, which can be seen today. At the same time he laid out the grounds in appropriate to the new home. And then he was able to install his hunting lodge at Glengarriff.

In 1851 the patriarch died at the advanced age of 84 and was succeeded by Richard. The new Earl did not see eye to eye with his brother William who took up residence at macron Castle, which he had inherited from his grandmother.

Countess Mary died in 1853 without children and when Reichard died in 1868 the Earldom passed to William.

William had married in 1846 Jane Herbert, daughter of Charles John Herbert of Muckross, thus seeking bridge from the same house as his grandfather. The marriage was blessed with five daughters, Elizabeth, Olive, Ina and Jane as well as Marty who died in infancy, and one son, William, who was born in 1854 and became Viscount Berehaven when his father assumed the Earldom. Naturally the family moved into Bantry House.

Thus in the late 1860’s and into the 1870’s Bantry House became a gay and cheerful place ringing to laughter and gaiety from the young ladies and their beaux. The great natural harbour was a safe anchorage for the British fleet and the balls and dances were many.

In 1884 William died at the age of 83 and was succeeded by his only son. In 1886 the new Earl married Rosamond Petre, doughtier of the Honourble George Petre, Catholic gentleman high in the Vatican staff. But this William did not enjoy the robust health of his father and he died in 1891 without heirs. His titles became extinct.

Happily, though, the House and its estates were to remain in the family. On the death of the last Earl, ownership passed in the family. On the death of the last |Earl, ownership passed to his nephew Edward, son of his eldest sister Elizabeth who had married Egerton Leigh of High Leigh, Cheshire. Edward, born in 1876, assumed the additional name of White in 1897. In 1904 he married Arethusa Hawker of Longparish, and they had two daughters, Clodagh born in 1905 and Rachel one year later.

The two little girls grew up at Bantry House in the gracious years before the First World War. They remember the parties, balls and dances for visiting naval officers and the local gentry, which were abruptly terminated by the outbreak of hostilities in 1914.

Edward Leigh-White died in 1920, leaving Bantry House and Estates in trust to his elder daughter Clodagh, then a girl of 15.

In the same year the only hospital in Bantry, run by the Nuns of the Convent of Mercy, was burnt down during the civil war. Mrs. Leigh-White, with the agreement of the trustees, offered Bantry House as a temporary substitute and this rent-free offer was accept, with the result that for the next five years the nuns and their patients moved in. A chapel was sanctified in the library. During this time Mrs. Leigh-White and her daughters made frequent visits. Also in 1920 Arethusa Leigh-White was awarded the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E) in recognition of her devotion to charitable and welfare work for the whole community of Bantry during the war.

In 1926 Clodagh came of age and assumed responsibility for the Estate. Later in the same year she met Geoffrey Shelswell of Essex a barrister and member of British Colonial Service. They were married shortly after and in 1927 Geoffrey assumed the additional name of White. He served in Zanzibar, Gibraltar and Transjordan before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. During this time he and Clodagh had three children, Delia born in 1928, Oonagh in 1930 and in 1933 an heir, Egerton.

In 1940 Clodagh returned to Bantry House where she remained with the children throughout the war years. The Irish Army were billeted in the grounds, stables and part of the house. Relations were cordial and when they departed with the return of peace in 1945 all traces of their stay were eradicated by them, although some of the notice boards in the stable yard have been preserved as mementoes.

In 1945 Clodagh took a decision which was to ensure the future of the House. She opened in to the public, the first one in Ireland to be so displayed.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey had been seconded to the British Ministry of Information on three outbreaks of war and this work continued until 1948. By then he was 51 years old and had become a senior member of the Colonial Service. No suitable post could be found for him in the rapidly contracting Empire. He retired and joined Clodagh and the children at Bantry where he devoted himself to running the estate, researching the family and history of the area and supervising forestry on the estates at Glengariff.

Arethusa Leigh-White, who had embraced the Roman Catholic faith, died in 1959. Geoffrey died in 1962 leaving Clodagh to carry on alone the showing of her much loved home to the thousands of visitors who came every year. Her sister Rachel returned and took up residence in the area, paying frequent visits and helping with the showing at weekends.

In March 1978, after a short and relatively painless illness, Clodagh died as she would have wished, in Bantry. Ownership of the House passed to her only son, Egerton.

He had married in 1961, Jill Dumeresue, daughter of John Dumeresque of Hertfordshire. In 1962 they had a son Edward, and in 1965 a daughter, Jane. At the time of his mother’s death Egerton was farming in Alabama but then returned to live at Bantry House.