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The Great Salt Pond in the Hellshire Hills, St. Catherine was extensively mined for salt and there were two salt works at Salt Pond Hill operated by Capt. Joseph Noye in the 18th century, and in one year he produced 10,000 bushels of salts. In 1670 an agreement was made with St. Thomas Modyford who patented adjoining lands of St. Thomas in the Vale and St. Dorothy to supply them with salt at a low rate. |
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With 450 years of cultural intermingling, there’s always something new – and old – to taste, to hear and do. Magical fables, stately estates, honoured traditions and natural charm…let us share our Jamaica with you. |
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 When hunting for great houses in Jamaica, you never have far to look; we have more than any other island in the English-speaking Caribbean. Keep an eye out for the fronds of towering Royal Palms and imposing stone gateposts guarding entrances that curve around hilltops to the Busha’s mansion. ‘Busha’ was the planter in sugar’s heyday. Then, lavish houses were built, with mahogany floors, crystal chandeliers, and intricately carved four-poster beds. Meals were eaten on the most delicate china. Across the island you will stumble upon these reminders of colonial Jamaica, tucked between rows of cane, on misty mountaintops or deep in evergreen valleys.
In the strictest sense, a “great house” is the main house on a plantation, physical evidence of the wealth, status and privilege of the planter who owned the property. Here in Jamaica, the term is used loosely to describe the many graceful old homes that dot the countryside.
Technicalities aside, the fusion of European grandeur and Caribbean charm, evident in elaborate fretwork and wraparound verandas, is sure to enchant, casting a spell even more powerful when you know the houses’ stories. Tales of wicked witches and cruel masters, and the rebels that defied them still haunt these homes. Others come alive with memories of spirited celebrations, young lovers and family dynasties.
Some of these have, unfortunately, been left to decay, choked with vines and overgrown with weeds. Others retain their past grandeur -- restored, repainted, and redecorated -- beckoning to explorers and historians alike. |
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