Saint Catherine Parish: History and Landscape

Saint Catherine Parish can be explored through a range of themes: the architectural heritage of Spanish Town, a limestone cave landscape and horse racing in Portmore. If you’re looking for a holiday rental, it can help to decide first what you’d most like to focus on. This gives you a practical starting point for planning a trip around history, landscape or a particular experience.

Church and bridge in Spanish Town

Added in 1817, the tower of Spanish Town Cathedral is crowned by one of the few church spires in the Caribbean. This striking detail gives the cathedral its own architectural character. Also in Spanish Town, Saint Catherine, stands the historic old cast-iron bridge, regarded as the oldest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The tower and bridge offer two different ways to explore architectural history: a distinctive feature of a cathedral and a cast-iron bridge. For travellers interested in historic buildings, both are specific landmarks in Spanish Town.

Cave landscape and horse racing

Two Sisters Cave lies in the Hellshire Hills, Saint Catherine. The natural cave and the tunnel beneath it are connected to numerous other caves and tunnels in an extensive limestone area. This makes the cave a distinctive geological feature of the parish: the focus is not only on a single formation, but also on its connection to the surrounding limestone landscape.

Caymanas Park in Portmore, Saint Catherine, offers a different travel experience: the park is home to horse racing. Saint Catherine Parish therefore brings together a range of interests, from historic buildings and a cave landscape to horse racing. You can choose a holiday rental to suit your focus: Spanish Town for the cathedral and bridge, Portmore for Caymanas Park; Two Sisters Cave anchors the cave theme in the Hellshire Hills.

Jamaica in the wider travel picture

Across Jamaica as a whole, culture, nature and culinary traditions are also part of the travel experience. Reggae is a central part of Jamaican culture. The Blue and John Crow Mountains area offered refuge to Maroons, formerly enslaved people, and preserves tangible cultural heritage associated with Maroon history, including the Nanny Town Heritage Route. The area is also one of the world’s most irreplaceable protected areas for the conservation of amphibians, birds and mammals.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee also has a clearly defined connection to its landscape: authentic coffee bearing this name is grown exclusively at elevations between 3,000 and 5,500 feet in the cloud forests of the Blue and John Crow Mountain range. Ackee and Saltfish is Jamaica’s national dish and a popular local breakfast. Depending on the season, it is served with items such as fried dumplings, callaloo, green bananas, avocado and plantains.

Nature experiences across Jamaica include YS Falls, a waterfall with seven tiers of cascades. Visitors can zipline 40 feet above the falls, go tubing on the river, use rope swings into clear pools and swim in a large natural spring-fed pool. Check before travelling whether these activities are currently operating. The annual Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival celebrates coffee and offers visitors coffee-based products to sample.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Linstead, Spanish Town, Old Harbour, Portmore, Seafield, Prospect, Trelawny Parish, Saint James Parish.

For the overview of Jamaica as a travel destination: Jamaica.