bantry house gardens and armada exhibition centre

In December 1796 a formidable French Armada left Brest, carrying almost 15,000 troops to help Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen liberate Ireland from British rule. Chaotic ship-to-ship communication and appalling winter weather dispersed the fleet, but 19 ships with 6,500 troops, including Tone, were off Bere Island in Bantry Bay by Christmas Eve, ready to land the next day. To Tone's despair, a landing proved impossible: savage easterly gales blew the ships out to sea.
The French again failed to land and headed for home on January 3rd, leaving behind them the veteran frigate La Surveillante. Too storm-battered to return to France, she was scuttled off Whiddy Island on January 2nd, 1797. The ship was designated a National Monument in 1985 and work began to excavate and preserve the La Surveillante.
The Armada Exhibition Centre will take you back in time an tells the story of Theobald Wolfe Tone and the French Armada. Artifacts excavated from the ship wreck along with a scale model of La Surveillante are on display. There's also a life size model of Tone in his cabin.