Towns and villages around the bay include: Adrigole, Bantry, Ballylickey, Cahermore, Cappanolsha, Castletownbere (Castletown Bearhaven), Donemark, Foilakill, Gerahies, and Glengarriff.

Daphne du Maurier’s novel Hungry Hill is based on the Puxley family's involvement in the area's tin and copper mining industry.

A French fleet, consisting of 43 ships carrying 15,000 troops, had divided mid-Atlantic into smaller groups to avoid interception by the Royal Navy and planned to reform at Bantry Bay.

The bulk of the fleet arrived successfully but several ships, including the flagship Fraternité carrying General Hoche, were delayed.

While awaiting their arrival, bad weather intervened and the lack of leadership, together with uneasiness at the prospect of being trapped, forced the decision to return to France.

The longboat was restored at the Liverpool Museum at a cost of €50,000 and is on display in the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, as part of the Soldiers and Chiefs exhibition[3] On 8 January 1979, 50 people were killed when a French oil tanker, the Betelgeuse, was offloading at Whiddy Island when it caught fire, exploded, and broke into three pieces.

In 1981, while cleanup efforts using sonar sweeps for the Betelgeuse were under way, the wreck of the French frigate La Surveillante, which had been scuttled during a storm north of Whiddy Island on 2 January 1797, was found.