A festival celebrating botany, botanical art and the beauty and biodiversity of Bantry Bay
The Ellen Hutchins Festival runs in the Bantry Bay area as part of Heritage Week in August.
The Festival includes a wide range of events designed to encourage people of all ages to explore the natural and cultural heritage of Bantry Bay. Most events are free, many need to be booked.
We are very grateful to our funders for the 2026 Festival:
Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under the County Heritage Plan Funding 2026
County Cork Arts Grant: Children’s Nature Art sessions
Bantry Credit Union: Children’s Nature Art sessions
Inspired by Ireland’s first female botanist, the Ellen Hutchins Festival takes place in and around Bantry Bay, West Cork every August. Ellen was born in Ballylickey in 1785 and the inaugural festival was initiated to commemorate the 200th anniversary of her death in 2015. The festival is now an annual event and for the last ten years has taken place over nine days each year during Heritage Week.
The sections below show what has been covered in previous years under each theme.
The archives has reports and programmes of previous festivals. See Festival Archives
