Cherry Tree Hill Barbados

At 850 ft., Cherry Tree Hill is the second highest point on Barbados, after Mount Hillaby. The hill lies right on the border of St. Peter and St. Andrew Parish. The view point lies, less than half a mile from St. Nicholas Abbey, and approximately one mile from Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill. Many island tours stop at Cherry Tree Hill, as it offers some of the best views on the island, specifically of the island's rugged, eastern side. We stopped here during an all day, private taxi tour of the island. There are no actual parking spots. You just park on the side of the road, and enjoy the view. The drive up to the view point takes you through a lovely Mahogany forest. Don't forget your camera and binoculars.

Despite the name, there are no cherry trees here, but rather Mahogany trees.
The story goes that, during the colonial days, the property encompassing the hill, belonged to wealthy plantation owner, Sir John Gay Alleyne, after whom the island's famous Mount Gay Rum distillery was named. He had lined the road leading up to his plantation, with cherry trees. This plantation was none other than St. Nicholas Abbey. Alleyne left Barbados, and went to England for some time, leaving his manager in charge of the plantation. After some time, locals started coming over and picking the cherries for free, which the manager was not pleased about. Every time he chased them away, they would come back. Eventually, he had enough. One day, he cut down all the cherry trees, and replaced them with Mahogany trees, but the original name stuck.
These days, tourists only come here for the spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean, and the island's ancient limestone mountains. We happened to visit during one of the biggest days of the Mount Gay Rum Regatta, a huge multi day boat race, around the entire island, so we got some nice glimpses of the boats as well. Occasionally, you can see vendors set up on the side of the road, selling hand made crafts and souvenirs. In fact, there were a few when we were there, but we didn't buy anything from them.

I was told that Barbados is a completely flat and forestless island, but this area proves to the contrary. Here you can get a great look at terrain and habitat, not normally associated with Barbados.

Because of its great views, Cherry Tree Hill was also used to film some scenes from the 1957 movie, "Island In The Sun", starring Harry Belafonte.

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