Holiday Jamaica

Overview

The Good Hope Great House is located 6 miles, ~9.8 km, south of Falmouth, in the foothills of the Cockpit Country. It is an expansive estate through which the Martha Brae river carves a serpentine trail from its origins in the Cockpit mountains to the village that carries its name, before reaching its final destination, the Caribbean Sea, not far from the parish capital, Falmouth.

It began as a sugar estate in 1744 by Colonel Thomas Williams after he was granted 1,000 acres of land. The Great House was built in 1755 when the land was part of St James. The parish of Trelawny came into being in the year 1770, when land from the parishes of St James and St Ann was carved out to create the new parish.

The house was sold in 1767 to 23 year old John Tharp, who subsequently increased the size of the property and his holdings, through the aquision of several neighboring estates, to 9,000 acres and approximately 3,000 slaves. John Tharp became a major landowner and sugar trader known for his benevolence in the way he treated his slaves.

Over the years, Good Hope grew into a village with its own church, a 300-bed hospital used to treat slaves, and a Free School that taught the slaves how to read and write. It is likely it is these acts of kindness that spared the estate and its Great House from the ravishes of the slave uprising when a great many great houses were destroyed.

The plantation prospered well after the abolition of slavery. The ownership of the property changed several times over the years, but the sugar factory continued in operation until 1902.

Today, it is operated by Chukka Caribbean as an adventure center with zip lines, river tubing, horse and buggy rides and dune buggy rides and tours of the Great House.