FAQs

Located along the Wild Atlantic Way, Bantry is approximately 90 km west of Cork City. We’ve detailed directions to help you get here by any mode of travel – see our Travelling to Bantry pages.

If you are unsure of travel directions please get in touch with our local Tourist Information Office – they are more than happy to help you to get to this beautiful part of Ireland.

There is a wide choice of accommodation in the region – Manor House Hotels and Hotels, Lodges and Guesthouses, Bed & Breakfasts and Farmhouses.  To explore your options, browse our Fáilte Ireland-approved listings or see the Co Cork listings at Discover Ireland.

If you’re having trouble finding accommodation our local Tourist Information Office will be delighted to help you.

You can also find out more about our local area and things to do on our own Tourist Information pages.

Yes! We offer

• 50% concession for most events to those aged 16 and under. No other concessions are available
• Festival Savers including:
  • Book 5 separate events in one transaction and get 10% discount (excludes Workshops, Editor in Residence and Free events)
  • Reduced ticket rate of €12 for workshop participants for events falling on the same days as the workshops (Mon-Fri). Discount only available on door 15 mins prior to event (excludes Editor-in-Residence sessions and other workshops.) Subject to availability.

Please contact the West Cork Music Box Office for these requests as they cannot be handled through our website. Note – Festival Savers can be booked using the booking form.

Yes! We can sometimes offer discounts:

• group booking discounts, when available, are dependent on the event(s) and size of group

Please get in touch our West Cork Music Box Office for these requests as they vary and aren’t currently available on our website – 00 353 (0)27 52788.

We also cater to registered Tour Groups for all our festivals. Please contact Lia Choice if you’d like to know more.

We offer a 50% concession for most events, outside of our Children & YA Festival, to those aged 16 and under. No other concessions are available.

Please get in touch with our West Cork Music Box Office for these requests as they aren’t currently available on our website.

Refunds will be given only in the case of a cancelled event.

When booking is open, you can book online here – and you can find out everything you need to know about booking here.

If you have any problems, just give us a call on 00 353 (0)27 52788 and we’ll talk you through it – or we can make the booking for you.

You can find out everything you need to know about booking, including when booking opens, here. Our dates vary every year.

You’ll find our terms and conditions on our Booking pages – with all the other information you’ll need to know about booking.

Our programme usually goes online in the spring. Booking for our West Cork Literary Festival Friends opens one/two weeks before General Booking does. During this time you’ll see our programme online, but you won’t be able to book online until General Booking opens. Find out more about our Friends schemes and benefits here.

The booking form is available in our brochure, which is downloadable here as soon as our brochure is published – usually in April.

We do have waiting lists for sold out events. If you get in touch with the office – 027 52788 – we can add you to the list and we’ll phone you if a ticket becomes available.

To avoid disappointment, do keep in mind firstly that we might not get any returns. Secondly, returns can often be at late notice and, in that instance, we will move on to the next person on the waiting list if we don’t get a reply from you.

In addition, if you like living dangerously and are already attending the Festival, you will occasionally get a return ticket for a sold out event at the very last minute before the event.

Great to hear! There are a variety of ways you can support the West Cork Literary Festival. Find out more on our Supporter pages.

And do keep coming back to our Festival – we couldn’t produce it without you!

We have several maps of the venues available to you:

• Online here
• Paper copies are available in our main office
• Poster copies are displayed in our office and venues
• You’ll also find tourist maps of Bantry and the surrounding area at our offices and at the local Tourist Information Offices on Bantry Square.

All our local venues are within easy walking distance of each other. Note that Bantry House, the furthest, is a 15 minute walk from the Tourist Information Centre on the market square.

In the town itself, street parking is limited to 2 hours, Mon-Sat 9am – 6pm. But there are several free car parks around the town:

• By the Bay
  • directly off the main square at the Supervalu turn
  • take the Supervalu turn from the main square and there is indoor and outdoor parking by the supermarket itself
• In town
  • By Biggs Catering Supplies, just down from the Library, off Bridge St
  • Off William St, on the left after An Poste

Bantry House has parking available for visitors just off the main road. You can see its exact location on our Venue Map.

There are disabled parking spaces throughout the town centre, and in the carparks mentioned in the previous FAQ.

Bantry House has convenient parking by the house. Please let us know in advance and we can book you a space for any events you are attending.

The ferry to Whiddy Island leaves from Bantry Harbour. You’ll find it on our Venue Map here.

The short trip from Bantry pier takes approximately 10-15 minutes.

Times for the ferry will be detailed on any event using it as a venue. If you want to know all the ferry times, you’ll find them on the Whiddy Island website here.