Westmoreland is the westernmost parish of Jamaica, on the southern side of the island, where the land looks toward the west and the sun sinks into the Caribbean. Its name, 'land of the west', reflects precisely that extreme position. It combines fertile coastal plains, interior hills and a coast that ranges from the beaches of Negril to the mangroves of the Great Morass.
In colonial times it was one of the richest regions of the British Empire. In the mid-18th century, acre for acre, its lands were among the most profitable not only of Jamaica but of the whole empire: its plains filled with sugar plantations and, at the time of Tacky's Revolt, the parish had some 15,000 slaves on more than 60 estates.
That enormous sugar wealth, sustained on forced labor, left a deep mark on the landscape and society of Westmoreland, and explains its later role in the labor struggles that would transform Jamaica in the 20th century.
The most famous destination in Westmoreland is Negril, spread between this parish and neighboring Hanover. Its heart is the Seven Mile Beach, formed by Long Bay and Bloody Bay, one of the longest and most beautiful stretches of white sand in the Caribbean, lined with turquoise waters and palm trees.
For centuries, Negril was a remote fishing village of fewer than a hundred inhabitants, isolated from the rest of the island and surrounded by the Great Morass, a great wetland that blocked access to the coast. Everything changed in 1959, when a road was opened connecting it to the island's road network. In the 1960s and 1970s came the hippies, students and Vietnam War veterans, drawn by its free atmosphere, its reggae and its simple life, and Negril became famous as an alternative paradise of the Caribbean.
The appearance of the first hotels in the mid-sixties, the airfield in 1976 and the first big resort in 1977 began its tourist transformation. Aware of the risk, the community imposed development rules, like the famous ban on building structures taller than the tallest palm tree. Today Negril is a hub of all-inclusive resorts, beach bars and nightlife that keeps its iconic atmosphere of sun, sea and reggae.
South of the Seven Mile Beach, the coast of Negril changes completely: the coral cliffs of the West End appear, rocky bluffs that drop sheer into the sea, with caves, dives into the water and lookouts. It's the zone of Negril's famous sunsets, considered among the most beautiful in the world, when the sun sets over the sea horizon with nothing to interrupt it.
Its emblem is the legendary Rick's Café, opened by Richard Hershman in April 1974 —when Negril was still a town without electricity—, the first bar and restaurant of its kind on the cliffs. There the divers leap into the Caribbean from the top of the rocks while the sun sinks into the horizon, in one of the most famous tourist rituals of Jamaica.
That combination of endless beach and spectacular cliffs made Negril a universal symbol of the Caribbean. Beside it, the Great Morass and the Royal Palm Reserve —a protected area within the wetland, with wooden boardwalks among royal palms and home to the Jamaican boa— recall the nature that preceded tourism and that today people seek to preserve.
The capital of Westmoreland is Savanna-la-Mar, whose Spanish name means 'plain by the sea'. It developed around 1730 as a sugar-exporting port and, despite its importance, has repeatedly suffered the onslaught of hurricanes, with notable disasters that throughout its history left it devastated several times, especially the great hurricane of 1912.
A few kilometers away is Frome, home to one of the most important sugar factories in the country. There, in 1938, one of the decisive episodes in the modern history of Jamaica broke out: the workers of the West Indies Sugar Company's estate went on strike over low wages and miserable working conditions, and the repression by the security forces left several dead.
The Frome riots triggered a wave of strikes in Kingston and throughout the island, and led to the arrest of Alexander Bustamante. From that labor rebellion the modern unions and parties were born, and its ripple effect led to the universal suffrage of 1944 and to a new constitution, first steps toward independence. Westmoreland can thus claim to have been one of the cradles of modern Jamaica.
Inland, in the foothills of the Dolphin Head Mountains, is hidden Mayfield Falls, a series of gentle waterfalls and natural pools deep in the rainforest, a quiet and less crowded alternative to the great tourist waterfalls of the north. The cool water, the exotic plants and the intact setting make it a perfect plan to escape the bustle of the coast.
Westmoreland is also crossed by numerous rivers —Negril, Cabarita, Roaring, Great, Bluefields— that come down from the mountains toward the south coast, feeding springs and natural bathing spots like the nearby Roaring River, in the neighboring karst area. These corners of water and jungle offer the most natural and serene face of the parish.
Between cane, mountains, waterfalls, wetlands and sea, Westmoreland combines the most festive Jamaica of Negril with corners of authentic nature and a deep historical legacy, at the point where the island looks toward the west and the sun sets over the Caribbean.