Windmill and Plantation Legacy
Mount Healthy National Park preserves the towering base of an 18th-century windmill and nearby plantation ruins that tell the story of Tortola’s sugar and rum era. The site — established as a park in 1983 — offers residents and visitors a close look at the island’s complex history, from plantation economics to landmark legal and moral events tied to slavery.
Mount Healthy National Park, established in 1983, sits on a small one‑acre promontory above Brewers Bay and centres on the stout base of an 18th‑century windmill once used to crush sugar cane. The masonry tower — built of local stone with walls six feet thick at the base tapering to three feet at the top — and the nearby ruins (a mill round, boiling house, distillery walls, hospital and living quarters) are tangible reminders of Tortola’s plantation era.
The windmill and adjacent Brewers Bay sugar works were part of a larger agricultural landscape that stretched along Tortola’s northern slopes. Sugar cane dominated the hilly areas from Josiah’s Bay west to Cane Garden Bay, while cotton grew on flatter ground. Many sugar and rum operations were deliberately sited close to the shore so barrels of product could be moved to lighters and shipped to overseas markets.
At the height of the trade in the late 18th century, some 26 rum distilleries operated on the island; a distillery in Cane Garden Bay remains in operation today and continues to attract visitors. Historically, the Mount Healthy estate was sizeable by local standards and was owned by Bezaliel Hodge, later bequeathed to Ruth (Hodge) Lettsome; the smaller Brewers Bay plantation belonged to the Anderson family.
The mill likely operated for nearly 60 years, roughly from around 1790 into the 1840s. Archaeological traces — ‘‘coppers’’, chimneys, foundations and slave quarters — still survive amid the vegetation and are accessible to those willing to take a short walk. Mount Healthy also stands as a site of serious memory.
The plantation era in the BVI was inseparable from slavery and the exercise of power over enslaved people. Two local stories illustrate contrasting responses of the time. Arthur Hodge, a wealthy plantation owner, was tried and executed for murder in 1811 after the brutal death of a young enslaved man named Prosper — a case that shocked the Caribbean and challenged contemporary assumptions about impunity for slave owners.
By contrast, John Coakley Lettsome, a Quaker physician born on Little Jost van Dyke, freed his enslaved workers, practised medicine across the islands and went on to found important medical and scientific societies in England. For residents, Mount Healthy offers more than scenery: it is a place to learn about the island’s economic past, to reckon with painful chapters in our history, and to support preservation.
The ruins above the small bay near the B‑Line Bar, the Brewers Bay remains and visits to Cane Garden Bay and the local distillery form a linked heritage route worth exploring. The BVI National Parks Trust provides updates on conservation work, events and renovations; their social media page lists upcoming activities and site access information.
An exhibition on Quaker history in the BVI is scheduled to open at the Old Government House Museum in Road Town from November 2025, providing further context to the stories visible at Mount Healthy.
Primary source: Welcome