Great houses are remnants of colonialism in Jamaica, built between the early 1700s to the mid-1800s. A great house was the seat of authority on the plantation, home to its owner or representative. Generally speaking, greathouses had two floors typically made of brick or cut stone, but the second floor was sometimes constructed of wood. At slavery’s peak, there were about 700 of these homes across Jamaica but fewer than 100 remain today due to a combination of fires from slave revolts and eventual neglect or demolition by its owners. Exploring great houses may be seen as morbid given the ghastly history of enslavement they represent, but I enjoy visiting for the architecture. They also serve as a reminder to celebrate how far my people have come. With that said, here’s how I ended up at the Shafston Great House in Westmoreland.
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Getting There
Shafston Great House is located in Bluefields, Westmoreland and is truly off the beaten path. We stumbled across a sign for Shafston while en route to the Bluefields River, which was a right turn off from A1– the last one just before the Bluefields Beach. The sign and dirt track to Shafston was a right turn about 5 minutes after turning off the main. When I arrived at the Bluefields River one Sunday morning, we saw community residents washing and drying clothes on stones by the river. Thus, feeling too awkward to swim where people were carrying out domestic duties, we retraced our tracks to the sign for Shafston and decided to pay it a visit since I’d read about a great house in the area once. Thankfully, Keith, the owner of Bluefields Organic Farm where I’d been staying that weekend knew the owner of the great house and called ahead to notify him that we were coming.
The road to Shafston was rough. It’s basically a dirt track, barely wide enough in parts for two vehicles to pass however people rarely visit so you won’t run into that problem often. The jungle like foliage was beautiful though, and ultimately gave way to warm sunshine and a beautiful view. Eventually, we decided to park and walk the last part of the journey as the road got even more deplorable. Not everyone at the great house was notified of our visit so we were initially greeted very warily. However, expressions softened once Frank, the owner of Shafston, came out to let us in. The barking dogs eventually warmed up to us too, wagging their tails and even escorting us to our car on the way down. I’m grateful Keith had called ahead though or we may not have gotten to visit at all. I’m grateful, too, for Frank who accommodated us on such short notice.
Shafston Great House
The current Shafston Great House was built circa 1800 when the owner chose to relocate the great house from the foot of the hills and up the mountain to escape malaria which was prevalent at the time on the plains. Back then, no one knew the disease was mosquito-borne but they still reaped the benefit of escaping malaria as mosquitoes don’t do well in the cooler mountain air. Shafston is located in the mountains overlooking Bluefields Bay, an area which was once the richest sugar producing area in Jamaica in the 1700s.
At its peak, the Shafston Estate contained 2147 acres when its original owner, Phillip Pinnock purchased the land from a Mr. Allwood. The estate was originally planted in sugarcane, but when the price of sugar plummeted in the 1800s, sugarcane was replaced by pimento, limes and logwood production. Life at Shafston was well documented by Phillip’s grandchildren, as you can read about here. Born at Shafston in 1822 and 1824, these grandchildren lived there until 1833 when they left with their mother for England, two years after the death of their father from pneumonia (antibiotics weren’t invented yet!), and Jamaica’s largest rebellion which ended slavery.
Custard apple tree on the premises
Today, Shafston is owned by a German expat, Mr. Frank Lohmann, who purchased the house and its surrounding acres in the 1990s. He operated the house as an inn for 20 years. The reviews online are few and mixed. What they agreed on was that the house commanded a lovely view, but surely, it has seen better years. The house contains nine bedrooms and five bathrooms, along with a pool and jacuzzi which were added by its present owner. He intimated that business has been slow in recent years but he prefers it that way because operating a guesthouse, while fun, gets tiring. His visitors these days are mostly old friends and repeat visitors.
What he didn’t share, but I found out online while putting together this article is that the great house is actually for sale! So, if owning a great house in Jamaica is on your bucket list, the 20-acre Shafston Estate can be yours with US$1,200,000. While the property has great potential, it will take a lot of investment to restore the house to its former glory. Out of respect, we only took a few pictures and then went about our way.
Wrap Up
This is my ninth Jamaican great house visit, and I look forward to eventually visiting all the remaining great houses I can find. It’s a bittersweet feeling admiring the architecture of these houses, knowing that they represented great suffering for my ancestors. Perhaps that’s why very little time, money or effort is spent maintaining most Jamaican great houses these days. Maybe many Jamaicans would prefer to see them all crumble to the ground like the physical shackles which were lifted on August 1, 1834. What do you think about great houses? Would you visit this one? Sound off in the comments below.
If you liked this post, you may also enjoy:
- Greenwood Great House in St. James
- Langley Great House in St. Andrew
- Seville Great House in St. Ann
- Colbeck Castle in St. Catherine
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