Although it’s as frenetic and chaotic as any other High St in Jamaica, Black River’s High St (note, High St and Main St are used interchangeably here) is lined with colonnaded Georgian merchant houses, all musty and fading away in the intense sunshine, which gives it a prettily entropic quality.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
12.56 MILES
You can smell the sweetness of molasses wafting from the Appleton Estate well before you reach it, almost a mile northeast of Maggotty. The largest and…
9.07 MILES
Deeply secluded in St Elizabeth parish, you’d be forgiven for thinking YS Falls emerged out of Eden. This series of seven cascades, hemmed in by limestone…
27.56 MILES
Few of Jamaica's waterfall experiences match Mayfield Falls for crowd-free natural beauty. Picture this: you climb into the cool river beneath giant…
29.46 MILES
A lane lined with palm trees leads you to the landscaped grounds of Hampden Great House estate, dotted with strutting peacocks. Tours assemble beneath a…
25.19 MILES
An unexpected bloom of pine trees, mahogany and mahoe grows atop the flinty heads of the Cockpits 3km northwest of Christiana, near Coleyville. This…
5.54 MILES
The soothing sound of a million leaves rustling in the wind is one of the quiet pleasures of this photogenic tunnel of towering bamboo. The 4km-long…
Alligator Hole Wildlife Reserve
27.24 MILES
This lovely government-owned wildlife reserve at the end of a very rough road is notable for its family of manatees that inhabit the clear water, and its…
16.42 MILES
Lover’s Leap, a headland 1.5km southeast of Southfield, is named for two young slaves who supposedly committed suicide here in 1747. Legend says the woman…
Nearby Jamaica attractions
1. Parish Church of St John the Evangelist
0.06 MILES
There has been a church on this spot since the early 1700s, though its current incarnation, built from yellow bricks shipped from England, was completed…
0.1 MILES
Virtually unnoticed by passers-by, this is a memorial to what came to be known as the Zong massacre – the throwing overboard of 133 African slaves by the…
0.11 MILES
At the east end of Black River’s High St is the Hendricks Building, dating from 1913, a fine example of period British-Caribbean architecture. Right next…
0.14 MILES
Immediately east of High St is an old iron bridge, once known as the Imperial bridge, as it was constructed with materials from different corners of the…
0.19 MILES
This elegant townhouse, a splendid example of the Jamaican vernacular style, with a shady wraparound veranda and jalousies, once belonged to John Leyden,…
0.26 MILES
This magnificent Georgian structure, built in the early 20th century, is home to the Legal Court and the parish council offices. In the past it doubled as…
0.34 MILES
Built in 1894 by Thomas Patrick Leyden, the son of shipping magnate John Leyden, Invercauld is a beautiful Georgian building with gabled roofs, bay…