Bantry Bay is a bay

Bay

A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...

 located in County Cork

County Cork

County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...

, southwest Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. The bay runs approximately 35 km (21.7 mi) from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

. It is approximately 3-to-4 km (1.8-to-2.5 miles) wide at the head and 10 km (6.2 mi) wide at the entrance.

Bantry Inshore Search & Rescue Association (BISRA) provides an emergency lifeboat service to the Bantry Bay community. Equipped with a high speed rescue RIB BISRA is a declared resource of the Irish Coastguard.
The bay is a deep (approx 40 meters in the middle) and large natural harbor, with one of the longest inlets in southwest Ireland, bordered on the north by Beara Peninsula

Beara Peninsula

The Beara Peninsula is a peninsula on the south-west coast of Ireland, bounded between the Kenmare "river" to the north side and Bantry Bay to the south. It has two mountain ranges running down its centre: the Caha Mountains and the Slieve Miskish Mountains...

, which separates Bantry Bay from Kenmare Bay.