British Virgin Islands / Special Interests / Historical Sites

With everything centred on the sea, and a limited visible history on the islands, the British Virgin Islands do not have all that much to see on land. Recently, however, there has been an effort in the islands to restore some historic sites to the point where they can be viewed. The BVI Tourist Board publishes a number of leaflets listing the historic buildings and places. There are also 17 protected areas that fall within the National Parks Trust, where you can see the natural life of the island.

Tortola

Road Town, capital of the British Virgin Islands, lies midway along the protected southern side of the island of Tortola. It is a small town set along the waterfront and back into the flat land in the bay. There probably was a time when the town had a single road, but the name does not derive from that. A “roadstead” was an old English word for a good natural harbour and this was always the main harbour for the island.

Now there are basically two roads in the main part of the town. The current major route through town, surrounded by modern buildings, including the government buildings and several banks, was built on reclaimed land in the 1990s when the old road, Main Street, became too slow and crowded.

Main Street, further inland now, is visibly from another generation and has some nice old West Indian buildings on it, including the Penn House, which contains the BVI Museum, the Smiths Gore building, the old Prison, and the Bougainvillea Clinic – or “Purple Palace” as it is called locally – which is famous for cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. It was first set up over 30 years ago by British surgeon Robin Tattersall OBE. The Fort Burt Hotel has been built around the town’s original defence (it also used to be closer to the sea).
 
Government House - An imposing building (on a small scale) sitting on a small rise overlooking the harbour in Road Town, the former official residence of the Island Governor, who has moved to a new, similarly imposing but small building. It can now be visited. You will see the drawing and dining rooms laid out as they were. There is a gift shop and a knowledgeable guide.

Mount Healthy Windmill - The shell of an 18th Century windmill high above Brewer's Bay, built to crush cane. The juice that was extracted was channelled to the boiling house on the other side of the road. It is the only windmill remaining on the island.

The Great Wall, Fahie Hill, Ridge Road - Also known as the Fahie Hill Mural, the Great Wall is a community art project featuring the work of a group of local artists headed by Rueben Vanterpool. The idea behind the project was not only to beautify the bare concrete retaining wall on the Ridge Road but to also create an outside gallery depicting the cultural history of the BVIs. Topics on the mural include market day, fishing, cutting sugar cane, baking, heritage dancers, wash day, donkeys carting sand, moonlight crabbing and landscape scenes. There are contributions by Quito Rhymer, Cedric Turnbull, Pearl Friday, Thor Downing, Dean “Ghost” Smith and Garth Hewlette.

Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda has even fewer “sights” than Tortola. There are just a few historical ruins on the island, so most of the things to see are either natural sites or they are set in the water.

The Copper Mine - A newly declared park that was once mined by Cornish miners in the mid-19th Century for copper and other minerals. The shafts and several of the mine's stone structures still remain.