Turner's Hall Woods

Turner's Hall Woods in the Scotland District is the only substantial piece of the forest that covered Barbados before the sugar planting cleared it, around twenty hectares of mature trees on ground too steep and broken to have been worth converting. Silk cotton, locust and macaw palm grow there with monkeys in the canopy. It gives some sense of what the whole island looked like before 1640.

What you actually see

• The original forest - the last substantial remnant of pre-sugar woodland.
• The mature trees - silk cotton, locust and macaw palm in the block.
• The green monkeys - the troops living in the canopy.
• The broken ground - the steep terrain that saved it from clearance.

When to go

December to May is the dry season and the paths are firmer. The wet season from June brings mud and mosquitoes. Early morning is best for monkeys.

Honest expectations

The block is small and paths are unmarked and muddy. There are no facilities. Access crosses private land in places and permission should be sought.

Nearby

Mount Hillaby is south, and the Scotland District is around it.