Cattle were used to transport the sugar cane to the mill and in many operations were the motive power of the mill. Cattle operations were very important, because cattle were a vital aspect of a sugar estate.

This was the “big” house of a cattle operation. The term “great house” is only meant for the “big” house of sugar plantations. It’s not really a great house, but a pen. At the end of the paved road, at the Windsor Cave “office”, I asked direction of the local cave tour guide and he pointed to the left and told me to follow the dirt track. Usain Bolt, the world record holder in the 100 meter and 200 meter races, Jamaica’s fastest man in the world and local hero, was born here. The town of Windsor was established in recent times when Kaiser Aluminum transplanted the people from Saint Ann Parish to Windsor in Trelawny Parish.

It is a place where rivers flow sometimes above and sometimes below the surface due to the porous limestone. The large white rugged limestone cliffs contrasted sharply to the bordering lush green valleys. Evident, along the road, as I drove deeper into Cockpit Country, was the karst topography (a landscape that was formed by the dissolution of the soluble limestone). The further I drove back into Cockpit country the road became narrower and eventually became a one lane road from Coxheath to the hamlet of Windsor. The first property I visited today was at the end of a long trip from Kingston to Windsor.

Cockpit country jamaica