When you’re on the West Cork property trail, the question that will inevitably come up (amongst many, many others of course) is: West Cork is all very well for scenery, houses, property investment, pubs and colourful friendly people, but what about public transport facilities?

Well, public transport is alive and well in the Bantry area – by that I mean the area that we’re most concerned with (i.e. Bantry, Kealkil, Sheep’s Head Peninsula, Glengarriff, Beara Peninsula). Bus Éireann – the state-owned transport company – offer a good service in the area and to and from Cork city. But around Bantry itself and perhaps slightly unusually for a town of its size, there is an excellent local bus service. It was set up in recent years after a successful initial pilot scheme. You can get full details on the West Cork Rural Transport system by clicking here.

And if you must go to the pub, then the good news is that there are an awful lot of taxi and hackney services around the place. You’ll always have to wait for what seems like an eternity if you start looking for a cab at 2am on a Friday night, but if you book in advance, then you’ll have no problem at all, as well as saving yourself from further excessive intake of alcohol. There isn’t any central area where you can go to get advice and a list of all the taxi services (not yet at least, but there is talk of the Bantry Chamber of Commerce bringing out an informational booklet of the town) but if you wander into any pub in any of the towns or villages around, you’ll get a list of telephone numbers of taxis and some beer probably.

There are also buses running along the peninsulas and the rural hinterlands that cover many areas for transport to and from secondary schools. So, whether you’re living on the Sheep’s Head Peninsula or the Mealagh Valley or wherever, you will find that there is a good regular bus service to take your children to the secondary school in Bantry (where there are currently 2 to be amalgamated into one), Schull or Castletownbere. For Castletownbere itself, there’s also a ferry service that ferries islander students to and from Bere Island.

Harringtons – Estate Agents Bantry – 027 51553
Specialising in West Cork Property in Bantry, Glengarriff, Beara, Sheeps Head and surrounding areas

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 3:13 pm and is filed under News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.