Tamarin Salt Pans

The salt pans at Tamarin cover a flat area beside the coast road, a chequerboard of shallow basalt-walled basins into which seawater is let and moved from pan to pan as it evaporates and concentrates, until salt crystallises and is raked into white heaps by hand. The operation dates to the 1830s and works because this stretch of the west coast is the driest and windiest part of the island. Production has declined steeply as imported salt undercut it and land pressure has grown, and much of the site is no longer worked, but the pans remain and the process can still be seen in the dry months. The white mounds against the dark basalt and the mountains behind make it a fixture for photographers.

What you actually see

• The pan grid - the chequerboard of shallow evaporation basins.
• Salt heaps - the raked white mounds beside the working pans.
• Hand harvesting - the raking and carrying, when work is under way.
• The mountain backdrop - Rempart and the Black River peaks behind.

When to go

May to December is the dry season and the harvesting period; work stops in the wet summer months when the pans fill with rain. Morning and late afternoon light suits the white salt against dark rock.

Honest expectations

Much of the operation has closed and on many days nothing is being worked. Access is from the roadside; the pans are private and entering them is not permitted without arrangement. There is no visitor centre or interpretation. The site is exposed and hot.

Nearby

Tamarin bay lies west; the Martello tower is south at La Preneuse.