Nine Mile

Nine Mile is a small hill village in the interior of St Ann where Bob Marley was born in 1945 and where he was buried in 1981. The site holds the one-room house his family lived in, painted in Rastafarian colours, the single bed he slept on, and the rock he described in a song as the place he rested his head, which visitors are invited to lie on. Beside them stands the mausoleum, a small stone chapel holding his remains and those of his mother. Guides are drawn from the village and lead tours with a good deal of singing. The setting, deep in the hills with no coast in sight, explains a great deal about the music.

What you actually see

• The birth house - the one-room dwelling, painted and preserved.
• The mausoleum - the stone chapel holding his remains.
• The meditation rock - the stone from the song, in the yard.
• The hill country - the interior of St Ann, an hour and a half from any coast.

When to go

December to April is drier and the roads better. February, around his birthday on the sixth, brings a large celebration and crowds. Tours run through the day and take about an hour.

Honest expectations

The road up is long, narrow and in poor condition, and the drive is most of the day. Entry is expensive and there is a persistent hard sell on the way in and out, from touts on the road as well as vendors on site. Photography inside the mausoleum is not permitted. Some visitors find the atmosphere more commercial than reverent.

Nearby

Ocho Rios is ninety minutes north; Brown's Town is the nearest large town.