Our New Venue

Stunning local venues – from Bantry House and Whiddy Island to the tip of the Sheep’s Head peninsula – have formed a rich backdrop to immersive and memorable experiences for visitors, musicians, writers, and other creative people. However, local audiences lack opportunities to see great performances outside our festival periods. And our venues were not designed to deliver arts experiences that provide a welcome for all.

A modern, state-of-the art venue, designed to the highest acoustic standards, will enable us to deliver an exceptional festival experience and year-round programming for locals and visitors alike.

We are carefully balancing our need for stability with our commitment to safeguarding what has made our festivals so special to so many people. We will still make use of the wonderful venues that have hosted us so generously for so many years. But our accessible venue, with a world-class acoustic, and our education hub, will form a stable base for a wonderful year-round programme, a hub for creativity in West Cork, and a national beacon of artistic excellence.

West Cork Music has always understood education as a vital part of its mission. Masterclasses have always been at the heart of our programmes, and, over the years, we have contributed to developing the skills of many young musicians to world-class standards.

But we have not had the facilities to support music education from the grassroots up and develop the potential of musicians here in West Cork. Our venue plans represent an important investment in the future of the arts in rural Ireland, and in local and national talent!

Over the years, we considered over 15 sites in our West Cork coastal heritage town for the arts venue and education hub. Cork County Council kindly assisted us in carrying out an expert-led asssessment of the options. The site we selected is adjacent to Bantry Library in the heart of the town (currently Biggs Catering Supply and car park). Here, West Cork Music’s facilities will put arts at the heart of our community, and help form a new cultural quarter, helping to drive the economic and cultural vibrancy of Bantry town and the wider region.

Award-winning, Dublin-based architects, McCullough Mulvin, beat international competition with a flagship outline design that matched our vision of a world-class venue and music education facility. After careful work with our expert design team to refine the concept, a planning application was lodged in April 2026. A decision is expected in mid-June 2026.

We understand that parking is a challenge that needs to be addressed in Bantry. We know that our footprint will displace some of the town’s private car parking spaces, and our design team has been working with a range of stakeholders to support a positive solution to this issue. We will continue to be part of practical discussions to support progress.

When we look at the impact of the venue and education hub themselves, it is worth noting that the capacity of the auditorium (271 people) is just a little larger than the audience we regularly accommodate at Bantry House on festival nights. And it is considerably smaller than the number of people we host for events at The Maritime Hotel (just over 400). We already host events throughout the year in the evenings and on weekend afternoons – at St. Brendan’s Church, the Marino, and the Library, for example. While our capacity at these events will grow, there will not be a huge leap in associated traffic.

Many of our events outside the festival period will take place in the evenings, when the lack of footfall and parked cars in Bantry is actually a type of problem. Arts venues make an important contribution to animating towns, especially in the evenings. By bringing people into Bantry at quieter times, and encouraging them to stay longer, we will be helping to grow economic activity later into each day and year round. In the process, we will be improving opportunities for food, drink, and retail businesses, and supporting quality of life for visitors and locals.

Our location is within easy walking distance of several local schools, and so traffic to pick up the education hub’s learners may help switch journeys later, out of peak times, rather than adding significant volume. Where people are waiting to pick up learners, or meeting up after classes, there are opportunities for our neighbours to profit from this increased footfall. The same opportunities will apply to our day-time classes, which will generally run on a small-group basis during term-time, when Bantry is quieter. And we will  encourage Active Travel for all of our students, in accordance with our proactive Green Strategy. We already encourage, track, and monitor the growing use of public transport by our festival-goers. We will continue this approach after our venue’s doors open!

We welcome the improvements that are being made to Active Travel networks in West Cork, and we already actively promote ways to reach us that make the most of improving bus connections from Cork, Kenmare, Macroom, the West Cork peninsulas and Bantry’s hinterland.

We intend to use our new facilities as a hub for activity across the town and region, and so many of the events we organise now will continue to take place in the wonderful locations where our audiences have had such wonderful experiences over many years, helping to disperse traffic and spend across the area.

You can make payments to West Cork Music for the Capital Project online via our Donation Form, by cheque, or by bank transfer.

• Donation Form: Visit the donation page on our website.
• Cheque: Payable to West Cork Music & post to 13 Glengarriff Rd, Bantry, Co. Cork, P75 HW72. Please enclose a note with return contact details (name, email and address) stating that your donation is for the Capital Project, so it may be acknowledged with a letter of thanks and receipt.
• Electronic Bank Transfer: Please contact us at info@westcorkmusic.ie to arrange this.

You will find answers to more questions about how donations are made and processed on our donation page.

Yes – you can opt to dedicate your gift eithrr to the education hub or the arts venue. Or you can give us permission to use your generous donation where it is most needed.

A legacy gift is a wonderful way for you to invest in the future of the arts in West Cork and Ireland as a whole. It will be hugely appreciated, not just by West Cork Music, but by the learners, musicians, and audiences who enjoy our new facilities in years to come.

Any legacy gifts which are received by West Cork Music after the project’s completion will be invested in sustaining our auditorium and education spaces as vibrant spaces for cultural expression into the future. We will be happy to help in any way we can, but we would also advise you to seek legal advice before making any legacy commitments. To discuss a legacy gift, contact Siobhán Burke, our Venue Development Manager at siobhan@westcorkmusic.ie

On 19 August 2026, Cork County Council granted planning permission for West Cork Music’s landmark multipurpose arts venue and education hub in the heart of Bantry, subject to the normal conditions. We hope to secure the full grant of permission by the end of September, and we are actively fundraising to complete the purchase of our chosen site. You can donate to support the ongoing project and keep in touch with our progress via our West Cork Music newsletter!

You can sign up for our capital project newsletter, to receive regular updates. You are also very welcome to contact Siobhán – our venue development manager – to arrange a meeting, online or in person.

Email: siobhan@westcorkmusic.ie | Phone: +353 (0)86 303 0991 | Book an online meeting.

With funding, and a fair wind, we would hope to open our doors in 2030. At the moment, we are fundraising to complete the purchase of our site, and finalising designs and other matters so we can proceed with the procurement process, after a final grant of planning has been given.

Detailed costings are being worked through at the moment, but projects of this scale would currently be expected to cost in the range of €30-40m.

We have already benefitted from the generosity of a range of supporters, local, Irish, and international. We are working to win public funds, as the project will have cross-cutting benefits in terms of rural regeneration, education, and the arts. Crucially, it will also help to rebalance access to the arts for all by creating universally accessible facilities for the performance and enjoyment of the arts, here on the edge of Ireland and Europe.