About this business
Eccles Hotel & Spa is a four-star historic hotel on the shores of Bantry Bay in Glengarriff, West Cork — operating on this site since 1745, making it one of Ireland’s oldest continuously operating hotels. Set on the Wild Atlantic Way, the hotel looks out across the sheltered waters of the bay to the wooded island of Garinish and the mountains beyond, in one of the most celebrated natural settings in Ireland. With 57 bedrooms, two dining venues, a spa with three treatment rooms, and the capacity to host wedding celebrations for up to 250 guests in the Ilnacullin Suite, Eccles Hotel offers a genuinely historic and scenically exceptional setting for a West Cork wedding. Its long guest list — from British royalty to poets and military officers — is documented in the hotel’s own book, The Untold Tales.
The history of Eccles Hotel reaches back to 1745, when it opened on the edge of Bantry Bay at a time when Glengarriff was already attracting travellers drawn by the exceptional beauty of its sheltered harbour and surrounding landscape. The hotel sits at the meeting point of Bantry Bay and the mountains of the Beara Peninsula, where the sheltered microclimate supports subtropical vegetation — Garinish Island, just minutes from the hotel by boat, is famous for its Italian garden and exotic plant collections. That same quality of light and landscape drew some of the most significant figures of 19th and 20th century European cultural life to Glengarriff, and the hotel’s history carries the residue of those visits: a layered record of hospitality at one of Ireland’s most visited natural landmarks.
The Ilnacullin Suite, with its panoramic windows overlooking Bantry Bay, is the centrepiece of Eccles Hotel’s wedding offer — a space that accommodates up to 250 guests for wedding receptions, with the constantly changing light of the bay providing a backdrop that varies from hour to hour and season to season. The hotel’s experienced wedding coordinator manages all aspects of the day, from floral arrangements and music to menu design and room setup, allowing couples to focus on the celebration rather than the logistics. With 57 bedrooms on-site, a substantial proportion of the wedding party can stay at the hotel itself, extending the celebration naturally into the following morning.
Dining at Eccles Hotel is rooted in the exceptional produce of West Cork — one of Ireland’s most celebrated food regions. The kitchen team sources from local artisan producers and supplements their ingredients with vegetables and herbs grown and foraged from the hotel’s own garden polytunnels, creating menus that reflect the agricultural richness and maritime character of the surrounding landscape. The Garinish Restaurant and The Harbour Bar provide two distinct settings for meals — from formal dinner service to relaxed harbour-view drinking — with Head Chef-led menus building on a tradition of West Cork hospitality that the hotel has been practising since the 18th century. The hotel’s spa adds a further dimension for wedding guests, with VOYA organic treatments, a double treatment suite, and weekly yoga sessions providing pre- and post-wedding relaxation on the bay.
Eccles Hotel & Spa is located in Glengarriff village on the Wild Atlantic Way in County Cork, surrounded by the Beara Peninsula, the Glengarriff Bamboo Park, and the waters of Bantry Bay. Cork Airport is approximately 1 hour 20 minutes by road, and the hotel’s position on Ireland’s most celebrated coastal driving route makes it readily accessible for guests arriving from across the country and from abroad. The surrounding area offers sailing, sea fishing, hiking on the Beara Way, and golf at Glengarriff and Bantry Bay courses, providing a full programme of activities for a destination wedding weekend in one of the most beautiful corners of the Irish Atlantic coast.