The Industrial Heritage of Barbados

I visited this tWHS in January 2023 as a very pleasant round-the-island day trip by rental car. The tWHS is made up of 5 locations, 3 clustered in the North, 1 in the South East of the island, and 1 in the South quite close to the airport.

First off we headed early to the Northern cluster. The most organised (and expensive at 50 USD for the combo ticket!) location of the 3 is by far St. Nicholas Abbey and its Steam Heritage Railway. The steam railway departs everyday except Saturdays at 10:00, 11:30, 13:30 and 14:30. If you decide to skip the steam railway ride, the highlight of the trip, the manually operated turntable, can still be enjoyed from a few metres off the beautiful mahogany avenue leading to the abbey, where you'll be able to also spot green monkeys and perhaps some birds too. Back in the old days, the steam train lines extended down to Batsheba Bay and beyond, but now the railway only exists within the plantation yard, beyond the Great House, the croquet lawn, and factory buildings. It offers an exceptional panoramic view from Cherry Tree Hill and equally on the return journey the entire North of the island of Barbados overlooking the Great House with the Caribbean Sea in the background.

Built in 1658, St. Nicholas Abbey is one of the island's oldest surviving plantations. With its original boundaries still intact, the plantation encompasses over 400 acres of rolling sugar cane fields, …

Out of the 5 components (St. Nicholas Abbey, Morgan Lewis Windmill, Newton Burial Ground, Codrington College, Mount Gay Historic Distillery), I visited the first 4. In my opinion and experience, this proposal has high chances of getting inscribed on the World Heritage list. 

Barbados was one of the prime British colonies in the Caribbean and has been widely accredited to be the birthplace of rum, a product of the sugar plantations on the island. The sites proposed tell the story of this sugar and rum production in the Caribbean, in my eyes more than sufficiently. 

St. Nicholas Abbey (which was never a place of religion, but rather a plantation), Morgan Lewis Windmill (the biggest and only surviving sugar windmill in the Caribbean) and the Mount Gay historic distillery (the oldest continious rum distillery in the world) are all relatively close to each other, on the north(-east) side of the island.

Entry to St. Nicholas Abbey is 20 USD, but can be upgraded with a tour on the new Heritage Railway to a total of 40 USD. I think this is quite steep, but tourist attractions in Barbados have high entry fees in general.

The Morgan Lewis Windmill was a cool site to visit, especially for a Dutchman. However, the site is quite small as it comprises only the windmill. I did not go in, but the surroundings made it a worthwile visit. 

I did not visit the distillery, as I already has visited the distillery …

The Story of Sugar and Rum is a multiple location THWS. I visited the Saint Nicholas Abbey and the Morgan Lewis Wind Mill and enjoyed my tour. Both sites are easily reached by car. Saint Nicholas Abbey is a manor with attached distillery, partially surrounded by sugar cane fields. The manor has a long history and its interior is splendid. However, the whole complex is not very big. Only one of the 2 floors of the manor was open so I had to be creative to spend more than 10 minutes inside. The distillery is small but nice and still in use. The forest behind the manor is home to some monkeys. I got lucky and saw them. On the down side, entry fee is over the top exaggerated with 20 USD.

The Morgan Lewis Wind Mill is just a few minutes’ drive (there is a nice view spot on the way) from the manor. Seems it was once a museum with entry fee, but when I arrived it seemed rather abandoned. Funny to see a wind mill in the Caribbean, but not that special for a European.

I skipped Mount Gay distillery in Bridgetown due to lack of time. All in all I think this would be a much nicer WHS than Bridgetown, Barbados’ current single WHS. Rum production is not overrepresented on the list so far.