Having travelled the extremely scenic route from Killarney, via Kenmare our honeymoon couple, Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Bell Nicholls, finally arrived in Glegarriff which means 'the rough glen' and is around 3 miles long and a quarter of a mile in breadth.We do not know for sure if they stayed in Glengarriff or if they just passed through. However, it is highly likely that they stopped off to appreciate the scenery of the location, set alongside Bantry Bay and cradled by the mountains. Their hotel of choice may have been the Glengarriff Inn which is now known as The Eccles Hotel, however, there is no evidence to confirm this is the case.
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| The Glengarriff Inn not long after Charlotte's and Arthur's 1854 visit to the village. |
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The Glengarriff Inn is now known as The Eccles Hotel. The central section was added and extended upwards after our couple's visit to Glengarriff.
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| Here is the elegant central extension. |
The hotel has been in existence since 1745.
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| The Glengarriff Inn prior to Charlotte's and Arthur's possible visit. |
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The Eccles Hotel as it is today.
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| As Charlotte and Arthur would have seen The Glengarriff Hotel |
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Unfortunately, the modern day hotel now has a large car park in front of it, with the road running by the bay next to the hotel's car park.
 | Glengarriff Inn 1842 by William Henry Bartlett. There was no large car park spoiling the place then.
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When Charlotte and Arthur were in Glengarriff in 1854, the bay was much nearer to the hotel with it's narrow road between.
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| A horse and carriage arriving at the Glengarriff Inn. |
Charlotte's literary hero William Makepeace Thackeray stayed at the Glengarriff Inn in 1850 described it as "a pretty inn". He also wrote,
" A beautiful bay stretches out before the house, the full tide washing the thorn-trees: mountains rise on either side of the little bay, and there is an island, with a castle in it, in the midst, near which a yacht was moored."
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| The Glengarriff Inn can be seen at the most northerly tip of Bantry Bay, positioned by the water and with the backdrop of the Caha mountain range. |
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| Glengarrif by William Henry Bartlett in 1842 |
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The Glengarriff Inn...now the Eccles Hotel
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Another previous resident of the Glengarriff Inn was Sir John Forbes whom Charlotte had been introduced to in person by her publisher George Smith whilst in London in 1853. Forbes was the court physician to Prince Albert and to the royal household and had written his book "
Memorandums Made in Ireland in the autumn of 1852" following his trip through Ireland in that year and published by Charlotte's own publishing house 'Smith, Elder & Co' in 1853. Charlotte had been sent this book, along with some others, by George Smith. No doubt, she would have read it, together with Arthur, ahead of their 1854 honeymoon.
Charlotte had also earlier consulted with Sir John Forbes in 1849, possibly encouraged to do so by George Smith, who was a friend of Forbes, regarding her sister Anne's pulmonary tuberculosis. The
Scottish physician did not actually travel from London to Haworth to see Anne as he had concurred with the local doctor's advice and prescriptions regarding her condition. However, in 1853, remembering his earlier generous offer of advice regarding Anne's condition, Charlotte gifted him a copy of her novel 'Villette' inscribed with the words
'in acknowledgement of kindness'
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John Forbes, drawing by John Partridge.
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Given there was little choice of local accommodation at the time and, maybe because they were aware of the Glengarriff Inn thanks to the words written by Thackeray and Forbes, our honeymooners may well have chosen the same hotel as the two men whom Charlotte both admired and respected. We chose to stay one night at The Eccles Hotel with views out to Bantry Bay...just in case Charlotte and Arthur had been there before us!
The "Irish Tourist's Illustrated Handbook for Visitors to Ireland in 1852" gives a brief account of Glengarriff:
“ The village of Glengarriff consists of only a very few houses. They are collected round the hotel, a pretty white house, built against a hill, which rises high above it, and standing within a few yards of the clear water. From every point of view the bay is beautiful; but is most beautiful seen from the windows of the little hotel–a hostelrie placed in a paradise, and which all are loth to leave–even for Killarney.”
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The view from The Eccles Hotel.
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If Charlotte and Arthur did stop off in Glengarriff, inspired perchance by the recommendations of Thackeray and Forbes, what might the happy couple have done with their short time there?
No doubt they would have strolled by the Bay and meandered through the lovely woodlands adjacent to the water. We enjoyed some time strolling there too.
They may also have gone in search of Cromwell's Bridge, as did we. Here is a little history of the bridge from the Irish Heritage News Facebook page,
Cromwell’s Bridge, Glengarriff
"This is a lesser-known drawing of Cromwell’s Bridge in Glengarriff in West Cork, which appeared in 1852 in the ‘Irish Tourist’s Illustrated Handbook for Visitors to Ireland’. This picturesque bridge has attracted much attention from artists and photographers since the early 19th century, with the many works of art depicting the bridge in varying stages of ruin and with differing numbers of semicircular arches. Today only a single arch survives extending from the south bank of the river towards the centre of the channel.
Folklore pertaining to the name of the bridge abounds. In 1839 Cork antiquarian John Windele stated the following:
‘Tradition says, that on the approach of Cromwell, on his way to Berehaven, the natives broke down the bridge in order to impede his progress, but he compelled them again to rebuild it; and thus has it since retained his name, as has also the ford "Ath Cromwell," over which it was erected’.
While the bridge likely dates to the 17th century and may have been contemporaneous with the period of the Cromwellian conquest, the name probably has nothing to do with him or his army. It has been suggested instead that the name of this bridge, surrounded as it is by woodland, more likely evokes the Irish ‘crom choill’ meaning ‘sloping wood’. The bridge is also known as Keamagower, from the Irish ‘Céim an Ghabhair’ meaning ‘goat’s leap’."
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| William Henry Bartlett's 1830s work shows the five arch bridge. |
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In the 1840s and when Charlotte was there the bridge had fallen down to a three arched bridge.
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Image Credit: ‘Irish Tourist’s Illustrated Handbook for Visitors to Ireland in 1852’. 3rd ed. (1852). Office of the National Illustrated Library: London. Irish Tourism Archive, Technological University Dublin. |
| in 2022 when we arrived, only one arch of the original 5 is still standing. |
Would our honeymooners have strolled out to find the bridge as we did?
We walked up to Lady Bantry's lookout with great views over Bantry Bay. Would Charlotte and Arthur have done the same? It was quite a steep climb.
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| The walk up to Lady Bantry's viewpoint. |
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| Lady Bantry's viewpoint. |
Here is a You Tube drone video of Glengarriff. It shows the wooded areas all the way done to the coastline. You can also see the road that wends its way around the nooks and crannies of Bantry Bay to the town of Bantry itself. Like Charlotte and Arthur we too headed in this very same direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_8OZE5aaEo&t=15s
Our's and their next stop was Bandon. But why?
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