Atlantic Sea Challenge comes to Bantry

With the massive success of the Volvo Ocean Race final in Galway and Cork Week just after finishing for another two years, this summer has seen the sea play a key role in numerous festivals nationwide. Now though focus is back in West Cork waters, a place of beautiful remote seascapes, beaches, coastal towns and villages, as Bantry, which is just 20 minutes drive from our hotel in West Cork, hosts the Atlantic Sea Challenge. For exploring all that West Cork has to offer or for hotels near Bantry the West Cork Hotel is the ideal choice for Skibbereen accommodation.

This international biennial event runs from Saturday July 21st to Sunday 29th and will feature sixteen international crews and see over 300 competitors take part within 10 events. Visitors can expect to see a spectacular special races and events both on and off the water, and with an extra dimension to the festival, set to bring to mind Bantry Bays' connections with the failed French Armada invasion of 1796, will see participants competing in replicas of the original Bantry Bay Longboat, the oldest surviving vessel from the French Navy. As well as the action in the bay, a special Fringe Festival will have a number of seafaring themed events and activities for all the family including a number of fancy dress themed family days out, including a special pirate day and many seaside water based activities. Numerous live music shows, a food fair and a twilight pageant of music, dance and fire-eaters complete the fine line-up. With so much happening and abundance of things to do in the west cork town of Bantry for the Atlantic Sea Challenge Festival, there is no better place to be than West Cork.