• Cool mountain air, perfect for healthy spa (Aveda) stays.
• 12 romantic Georgian style cottages.
• Jamaican and British heritage combined.
• Renowned restaurant – popular with guests and Kingston society alike.
• Explore the Blue Mountains – waterfalls, swimming holes and local towns.
- Travel anytime before 19th Dec and enjoy our Stay 5 Pay 4 Offer.
The Whole Story
Strawberry Hill is a former coffee plantation perched on a dark green plateau 3,100 feet above sea level in the midst of Jamaica's lush Blue Mountains. It looks down on the sprawling city of Kingston below and the blue-green waters of the Caribbean beyond. It once belonged to the Earl of Oxford, a.k.a. Horace Walpole, who is reputed to have been deeded the rich twenty-six-acre estate by the British royal family late in the eighteenth century. So although strawberries were (and still are) grown on the property, the name was in fact taken from Walpole's Gothic-style estate in Twickenham, England.
It may be almost three hundred years since the plantation was set up, but remarkably little has changed. This may be largely due to its remoteness, Once upon a time the journey from Kingston to Strawberry Hill would be made in a horse-drawn carriage up a winding track, Today, the journey by car is not much quicker. The road is now paved, but it is just as steep, and the many hairpin bends make any real speed impossible.
Over the years the estate has changed hands many times, but the sophisticated colonial lifestyle has been preserved, Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, remembers going there for afternoon tea with his parents as a child, a longstanding tradition begun by the Da Costa family, proprietors of the plantation in the forties. Years later, in 1972, Blackwell purchased the property himself and throughout the eighties entertained many celebrities and famous musicians here, including the Rolling Stones and Bob Marley. Strawberry Hill, like its English namesake, became a salon of sorts, a place where people would get together informally over lunch in the cool, crisp mountain air. So it was a natural step to open it as a restaurant in 1986. The Great House, a single-storey timber structure in the Georgian style, was renovated for the purpose and duly won a National Heritage award for architecture.
Disaster struck just two years later in the form of Hurricane Gilbert, The two-hundred year-old institution was obliterated in a matter of hours, Only in 1991 did Blackwell decide to build again, with a commission for a cottage from Jamaican architect Ann Hodges. This was a great success, a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Jamaican aesthetic.
Blackwell subsequently called upon Hodges, together with local project manager Jonathan Surtees, to build others for family and friends. From this, the idea evolved for an intimate mountainside hotel. Finally, in 1994, Blackwell opened Strawberry Hill, the first and original Island Outpost hotel in Jamaica.
The architecture and design of Strawberry Hill's twelve guest villas are stunning and truly deserving of all the many prizes they have earned to date. With their awnings, verandas and mountain vistas, they are apparently a self-contained world set well apart from local life. But in fact the biggest attraction here is that the place continues to play a role in Jamaican society, It is not just a luxurious retreat for overseas tourists; the excellent restaurant attached to the hotel is well known locally and Sunday brunch has become a regular fixture for politicians, artists, writers and other key members of Kingston's urban set, who make the forty-five-minute drive into the cool and misty Blue Mountains each week to eat, discuss and linger until sunset. The local element gives the place an edge, reclaiming it from the exclusivity of colonial tradition. So although the location is wonderfully remote, Strawberry Hill doesn't feel at all aloof from the vibrant urban culture of Kingston below.
But aside from the food, the truly spectacular location and the cool temperatures, Strawberry Hill is also renowned as a spa – an Aveda spa. The lush gardens and winding trails of the former plantation provide the perfect complement to the Aveda commitment to beauty and well-being, And make no mistake: this is a spa with serious facilities, not just a bunch of massage benches set up under a tree. An entirely separate building was purpose-built for the spa. The treatments on offer, normally administered after a detailed individual assessment, include six different treatments for the face, eight for the body and a further five options for the scalp and hair. From an Aveda 'Hair and Scalp Purescription Experience' to a stress-relieving 'Himalayan Rejuvenation Treatment', all nurture the body and relax the mind.
The Rooms
Strawberry Hill features 12 Georgian-style cottages with traditional 19th century Georgian architecture creating a romantic atmosphere: dark mahogany four-poster beds, French doors, louvered windows and spacious private verandas. Each cottage has a different theme and Jamaican art and photographs decorate the walls.
One Bedroom Cottage - deluxe rooms with balconies and boast stunning views of Kingston or over the mountains.
Studios - 4 studios perched on the mountaintop – each with magnificent 4-poster beds, kitchenette and balconies. Each one has an uninterrupted view of the city below.
Deluxe Villas - 2-Bedroom villas with wrap around balconies.