Cockpit Country

Cockpit Country is one of the most dramatic karst landscapes on earth: rain has eaten the limestone into a field of steep conical hills separated by deep enclosed hollows, the cockpits, repeated across some five hundred square kilometres with no through valleys and almost no soil. It is close to impassable, which is exactly why the Leeward Maroons used it as a base and fought the British to a treaty in 1739. Ecologically it is the island's core: most of Jamaica's endemic plants and animals occur here, including the black-billed parrot and the giant swallowtail, and much of the island's fresh water rises from it. Bauxite mining on its edges is a running controversy.

History

In the 16th and 17th centuries Maroons, people who had escaped the island's Spanish and British sugar plantations, and their descendants made their own lives in this rugged country of hollows up to 120 metres deep. During the First Maroon War the Leeward Maroons had two communities here, Cudjoe's Town, also called Trelawny Town, and Accompong Town (Wikipedia, Cockpit Country).

The landscape

• The cockpit karst - conical hills and enclosed hollows to the horizon.
• Endemic wildlife - black-billed parrots, endemic frogs and the giant swallowtail.
• The Maroon country - Accompong and the treaty land on the southern edge.
• The Troy and Burnt Hill roads - the routes that cross the interior.

When to go

December to April is drier and the tracks passable. It rains heavily here and the limestone is treacherous when wet. Accompong's Maroon festival is on the sixth of January. Guides are arranged through Windsor, Albert Town or Accompong.

What to expect

This is not a park with trails and signs; it is trackless karst where the rock is razor-sharp, sinkholes are unmarked and getting lost is genuinely dangerous. Do not go in without a local guide. Roads across it are among the worst in the country. There are almost no facilities. Mining pressure on the boundary is an active dispute and locals will have views.

Nearby

Windsor Caves are on the northern edge; Accompong is on the southern.

Key facts