Spittal Pond Nature Reserve

Spittal Pond folds most of wild Bermuda into sixty acres: a brackish lagoon where herons, egrets and migrating shorebirds work the margins, a loop trail through buttonwood and cedar replantings, and a stretch of south-shore cliffs where the Atlantic performs below. On those cliffs sits Portuguese Rock, also called Spanish Rock - an inscription dated 1543, thought to have been left by shipwrecked sailors and the oldest human mark on the island; the original was cut out and replaced on the cliff by a bronze cast. Autumn through spring the pond is the island's best birding as transatlantic migrants drop in, and the chequerboard limestone of the shoreline makes geologists loiter too.

History

The pond has also been called Brackish Pond and Peniston's Pond, after the family who owned the land, and the name Spittal probably comes from a place in Scotland, the land having served as a hospital and cattle grazing ground; on the shore cliff, Spanish or Portuguese Rock bears the date 1543 with marks read as RP, for Rex Portugaliae, and a cross of the Order of Christ, and the original piece was cut out and replaced by a bronze cast, with a plaster replica in the Bermuda Historical Society Museum in Hamilton. In the early 20th century the reserve was 10 blocks of private land, left undeveloped as salt marsh, until in 1946 Dr Henry Wilkinson turned his share of about 4.5 acres into a reserve beside the Spittal Pond Bird Sanctuary; the government bought more land over the years, and on 10 May 1999 the pond became a Ramsar wetland of international importance (Wikipedia, Spittal Pond Nature Reserve).

What you'll find

• The lagoon birdlife - herons resident, migrants in passage seasons.
• Portuguese Rock - the 1543 inscription above the sea, now a bronze cast.
• The south-shore cliffs - surf, spray and the chequerboard limestone.
• The loop trail - the easy circuit linking pond, woods and coast.

When to go

September to April brings the migrant birds and cooler walking; the loop is pleasant year round. After storms the pond fills and the birdlife concentrates. Early morning gives the reserve to the birders.

Before you go

It is a nature reserve of Bermudian scale - a focused two hours, not a wilderness day. Trails can be muddy after rain and the cliff edges are unfenced; keep children close on the seaward stretch. Bring binoculars or the pond reads as scenery rather than spectacle.

Nearby

The south-shore beaches, Flatts Village's aquarium and Harrington Sound.

Key facts