Select a Hiking Trail (by Location) Places to Visit ------ North Shore Trails ------ Lind Point Trail Caneel Hill/Margaret Hill Trail Turtle Point Trail Hawksnest Bay Trail Water Catchment Trail Peace Hill/Denis Bay Trails Cinnamon Bay Loop Trail Cinnamon Bay Trail America Hill Estate House Trail Maria Hope Road Maho Bay Goat Trail Annaberg Area Annaberg Francis Bay Trail Leinster Bay Road Leinster Bay Trail Johnny Horn Trail Brown Bay Trail ------ South Shore Trails ------ L'Esperance Road Cathrineberg Bamboo Grove Reef Bay Trail Petroglyph Trail Tektite Trail Yawzi Point Trail Lameshur Bay Trail Bordeaux Mountain Trail Europa Point Trail Europa Bay Trail Reef Bay Estate House Trail Par Force Trail Salt Pond Bay Trail Drunk Bay Trail Ram Head Trail ------ East End Trails ------ Newfound Bay Trail Turner Point ------ Gut Walks & Scrambles ------ Lind Point Shoreline Scramble Brown Bay Scramble Reef Bay Coastal Walk Fish Bay Gut

Leinster Bay Trail Map

The Leinster Bay Trail is a flat 0.8-mile trail that follows the shoreline of Leinster Bay from the end of the paved road beyond the Annaberg Sugar Mill parking lot (Leinster Bay Road) to the beach at Waterlemon Bay. The hiking time will be about one half hour.

The Johnny Horn Trail begins just behind the beach and continues on to Coral Bay.

Leinster Bay Trail from Murphy House

Beach at Waterlemon Bay

The Leinster Bay Trail runs right along the water's edge with splendid, unobstructed views of Leinster Bay, the Narrows, Sir Francis Drake Channel, and West End, Tortola. Moreover, it provides land access to one of St. John's best snorkeling locations, Waterlemon Cay, the small island that lies just offshore of the beautiful little beach at Waterlemon Bay

Waterlemon Cay

Waterlemon Cay
The small island of Waterlemon Cay once served as an arena for settling disputes and matters of honor. The Danes had outlawed dueling and as a result, citizens of St. Thomas and St. John who felt the need to engage in this activity would go to Tortola where dueling was legal. In 1800, when the British Islands also prohibited dueling, the remote and uninhabited island of Waterlemon Cay, far from the eyes of the Danish and British authorities, became the new “field of honor.”

Leinster Bay Trail

Leinster Bay Trailhead

The Trail
Before Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, the Leinster Bay Trail was passable by four-wheel drive vehicle. According to the National Park, the decision not to repair the road to a condition that would once again allow vehicle entry was made in order to lessen the impact on the reef at Waterlemon Cay by snorkelers arriving by vehicle.

The Leinster Bay Trail was once part of the Old Danish Road that began in Coral Bay and followed the north shore of St. John accessing the plantations at Brown Bay, Leinster Bay, Annaberg, Mary Point, Fredriksdal, Windberg, Little Maho Bay and Caneel Bay (Cinnamon Bay). Today, this route consists of the Brown Bay Trail, Johnny Horn Trail, Leinster Bay Trail, Leinster Bay Road, and the North Shore Road as far as Cinnamon Bay.

Beach Maho Tree Trunks

Crab Holes

Beginning from the Annaberg Parking Area the landward side of the trail abuts a low-lying area similar to that found on the Leinster Bay Road. A thicket of twisted maho trees dominate the landscape. On the ground you'll find numerous land crab holes with an occasional land crab scurrying into the safety of their tunnels upon your approach.

Beach Maho Tree Trunks

View from the coastal side of the Leinster Bay Trail

As you travel further down the trail the marshy flats on the inland side of the track give way to steep hills and rocky cliffs, before reverting once again to flats as you approach the beach at Leinster Bay where native stone walls once marked boundaries and contained livestock.

Leinster Bay Beach

turtle nesting area

Beach at Waterlemon Bay
The Leinster Bay Trail ends at the beach known as either Waterlemon Beach or Leinster Bay Beach. A National Park sign alerts you to the fact that this beach is an official turtle nesting area and subject to certain rules.

Well Tower

The Ruins
Look for the trail that begins about half way down the beach at Waterlemon Bay and leads inland. Here you will find the extensive remains of the Leinster Bay Plantation as well as what is left of a more recent cattle operation.

The remains of a small residence and a cattle trough lie just inland from the trail. Proceeding along the path, you will come to an old well tower. If you look in, you will see water at the bottom.

Well

There are three more wells on the site. One well is near the brackish pond and two more are in the valley. Just past the well are the ruins of the storage house, the boiling room and the boiling bench where sugarcane juice was boiled down to produce crystallized sugar.

Here you will see smooth black limestone tiles that look like slate. These tiles, made in Denmark's Gotlin Island in the Baltic Sea, are often found around the burning trenches of old sugar mills.

Leinster Bay Sugar Factory

The ruins of the horsemill are behind the boiling room. Also remaining on this old estate are the gatepost, the rum still and the canning room.

Archeologists have found evidence of at least twenty-six slave houses on the hillside to the east of the plantation.

Salt Pond

Deer at Salt Pond

Salt Pond
Behind the Leinster Bay ruins is an often dried salt pond, where deer often come in the early morning hours.

Other fauna you're likely to come across in the area include a variety of land and sea birds, great blue herons and land crabs.

History of Leinster Bay