The River Bandon produced the largest salmon recorded in Ireland since 1991: a 28 lb 3 oz fish landed here in 2008, now mounted on the wall of the Munster Arms Hotel in Bandon town. That is the river in a sentence. It is one of Munster’s serious salmon and sea-trout waters, and anglers are the people who know it best.
The Bandon (Irish: Abhainn na Bandan, from ban-dea, ‘goddess’) rises in the Shehy Mountains north-west of Drimoleague and runs about 64 km east and then south to the sea at Kinsale Harbour – Wikipedia puts it nearer 72 km, so treat the figure loosely. On the way it threads Dunmanway, the twin villages of Ballineen and Enniskean, the walled town of Bandon itself, and Innishannon, under fifteen bridges in all.
Fishing
The Bandon is a salmon and sea-trout river first. Bandon Angling Association controls much of the water and issues visitor day permits (see bandonangling.com); you also need the standard State salmon licence. The run builds through the season, and the lower reaches and the pools around the town are the stretches most anglers ask about. One honest note: brown trout are present throughout the system but generally run small, so it is the salmon and sea trout that justify the trip.
In the town itself, the weir is the spot to stand. It is floodlit at night and carries a modern fish pass – wait a while and, in season, you may see fish working their way up.
Walks in Bandon town
The most rewarding stretch for a visitor is in Bandon, where two named walks follow the water. The Graham Norton Walk, named for the broadcaster who grew up in the town, runs along the river. The Dr Clare O’Leary Walk – named for the mountaineer, the first Irishwoman to summit Everest – follows the old railway line between Bandon and Innishannon.
As you come into Bandon from the Cork side, the riverbank carries a cluster of family facilities – a large skate park, a basketball court, a modern playground and an outdoor multigym (the Tone Zone). Upstream at Ballineen, the wheelchair-accessible Riverside Biodiversity and Sensory Garden, a Tidy Towns project, looks across the river to the handsome ten-arch Ballineen Bridge.
The walled town and Kinsale
Bandon was the first walled settlement of the Elizabethan Munster plantations, and apart from Derry it is the only Irish plantation town whose walls survive. They were built by Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, between 1620 and 1625; you can still trace the line, with upstanding remains in the grounds of St Peter’s Church and at the Riverview Shopping Centre. The West Cork Heritage Centre occupies Christ Church, built in 1610 and reputed to be the oldest post-Reformation Protestant church in Ireland, now laid out as a walk-through exhibition of the old town.
Where the river meets the sea, it widens into the Kinsale estuary, guarded by the star-shaped Charles Fort and, across the water, the earlier James Fort. Charles Fort is an OPW site and charges admission; both give good views of the river mouth.
Festivals and markets
The Bandon Music Festival, for traditional Irish music, runs over the June bank holiday weekend, and Bailiú na Banndan brings a family festival – fireworks, a colour run and more – in July. The Bandon Agriculture Show is held each May (not, as sometimes listed, in August). The farmers’ market sets up every Saturday from 9.30am to 1.30pm in the Ballymodan car park, a good stop for West Cork breads, cheeses and vegetables.
Getting there
Bandon sits on the N71 about 20 miles west of Cork city, with the road running close to the river much of the way down to Kinsale. The town is the obvious base: it has the parking, the cafés and the walks, and from it the rest of the valley is an easy drive. It is also handy for the coast – locals will tell you Bandon is ‘7 miles from 7 beaches’, among them Coolmaine, Harbour View and Inchydoney.