Jamaican Parishes in Cornwall Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cockpit Country

A karst landscape is composed of limestone that has been eroded and dissolved to form numerous caves, sinkholes, fissures, and underground streams. Jamaica's Cockpit Country measures approximately 500 sq. miles (1,300 sq. km) and is Jamaica's largest remaining rainforest. The Cockpit Country is located south east of Montego Bay and its fringes reach into three parishes of Middlesex County.

The Cockpit Country is of great historical value to Jamaicans. It is one of the places where slaves took refuge after they escaped from the Spanish following the English invasion of Jamaica in 1665. These ex-slaves, known as Maroons, fought tenaciously against the English and successfully established communities beyond the control of the colonists. Their descendants still live in the area and in 2013 numbered about 5,000. The main settlement of Accompong is often visited by tourists.

A section of the Cockpit Country was named the "Land of Look Behind" by the Spanish horsemen who entered the area to capture runaway slaves. The horsemen were said to have ridden two on each horse with one rider facing the rear to keep a look out for the enemy.

The Queen of Spain Valley and the Vale of Clarendon are flat-bottomed valleys in the area that contain rich soils used for the cultivation of crops.

Answer: Windsor Cave

Windsor Cave is also of great geological interest and is fairly easy to access. Exploring the cave is challenging due to the presence of underground streams and for their safety visitors should always be accompanied by expert cavers. Several invertebrate species and large colonies of bats reside in the cave. The area is mined for guano.

Carambie Cave is a smaller and beautiful cave located in south Trelawny. It is also known for its phosphate deposits.

Caledonia and Smokey Hole Caves are located in Manchester, Middlesex. Smokey Hole is the deepest cave on the island.

Answer: Santa Cruz Mountains

The Santa Cruz mountain range is the only range in St. Elizabeth that runs from north to south.

The beautiful spot known as Lover's Leap received its name from a Jamaican legend about the fate of two lovers who were slaves. According to the legend, in the 18th century their owner wanted the woman for himself and sold her lover to another estate. The two fled in order to avoid being separated. They were chased to the edge of the cliff and rather than risk being captured, they jumped to their deaths.

The cliff is 1,700 ft. (518 m) above sea level. The site offers spectacular views for miles out into the Caribbean Sea as well as views of the southern coastline of St. Elizabeth and Manchester. Visitors to the site can hike down the path to Cutlass Bay, but the sea there is too rough for swimming. A restaurant and the lighthouse nearby are also of interest.

Although they are both located in St. Elizabeth, the Nassau Mountains run in the north-east and the Lacovia Mountains to the west.

The John Crow Mountains are the most easterly mountains of Jamaica. They run from the north-west to the south-east in the parish of Portland, Surrey.

Answer: Blenheim, Hanover

Blenheim is a small rural district in the hills of Hanover parish. Sir William Alexander Bustamante was born William Alexander Clarke in 1884 at Blenheim, Hanover. Sir Alex or 'Busta', as he was known to everyone, is an illustrious figure in Jamaican history.

In 2011, hundreds of Jamaicans from all walks of life gathered at his birthplace to commemorate the 127th anniversary of his birth and to pay tribute to the active role he played in the cause of labour and human rights as a Jamaican politician. He was the founder of the Jamaica Labour Party and the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union. In 1969, he was proclaimed 'National Hero of Jamaica' and upon his death in 1977 he was buried in the National Heroes' Park in Kingston.

Falmouth is the chief town and capital of Trelawny. It is located on the island's north coast about 18 miles (29 km) from Montego Bay.

Cave, a village in Westmoreland, is best known for the Georgian-style Chebuctoo Great House which is located near the village. This Great House was declared a national monument by the National Heritage Trust in 2008.

Southfield is a village and farming community located in the Santa Cruz Mountains in St. Elizabeth.

Answer: Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland

The town of Savanna-la-Mar (unofficially known as 'Sav' or 'Sav-la-Mar') is located by the sea and is bordered by swamps on both sides. The town was destroyed at least four times between 1748 and 1972. Each disaster involved considerable loss of life and the survivors endured periods of famine and disease.

Lucea is the capital town of Hanover, which is Jamaica's smallest parish. The town is fortunate in its location being almost midway between the tourist centres of Montego Bay and Negril. It has become a major supplier of agricultural products to the area's hotels.

Spanish Town, St. Catherine and May Pen, Clarendon are not located in the County of Cornwall.

Answer: Greenwood Great House

The 18th century Greenwood Great House is located on a hill near Montego Bay, St. James. This plantation house was constructed on a portion of the more than 84,000 acres (33,994 ha) of land owned by the Barretts in Jamaica. The Barretts used the labour of their more than 2,000 slaves to maintain their estates. The house is currently operated as an antique museum which contains the largest and rarest collection of musical instruments and books on the island. The top floor of the house affords a stunning, panoramic view of the Caribbean Sea.

Rose Hall is the most famous Great House on the island. It is located near Montego Bay and attracts over 100,000 visitors each year. As the legend goes, Annie Palmer, the wife of the owner, murdered him and her two subsequent husbands before being strangled by her slaves. It is believed that the house is haunted by her ghost. The house was destroyed in the slave rebellion of 1831 and was not restored until the 1960s.

Annandale Great House, located outside the village of Epworth near Ocho Rios in St. Ann, was built in 1760. The estate consists of about 600 acres (243 ha) and visitors can learn about the history of the house and estate on tours that are provided by local guides.

Good Hope Great House is located outside of Falmouth, Trelawny, and was built around 1755 on property given as a land grant to one Colonel Thomas Williams. The buildings on the estate have been restored and the current owners offer adventure tours of the estate.

Answer: Westmoreland

Seaford Town was named after Lord Seaford, a local landowner of the time. The township was established on 500 acres (202 ha) of land in the Westmoreland Hills some 25 miles (40 km) from the city of Montego Bay.

In December 1835, the first 249 German settlers arrived to establish Seaford Town. The settlers were promised that on arrival they would receive cottages, weekly allowances and adequate food rations until they were able to produce their own food. Instead, they had to build their own cottages, were overworked and received less than the promised amount of food. Two weeks of their arrival several of them died and in the next three years, their numbers were reduced significantly due to disease, hard labour and migration to the United States. When the first land titles were granted each member of a household received three acres (1.2 ha) of land.

In 2013, Seaford Town, which is also known as German Town, had about 160 Jamaicans of German descent living there. Efforts are being made to preserve the town's German cultural heritage. A museum now houses artifacts used by generations of German descendants as well as documents that display the history of the township.

St. Elizabeth, Trelawny and St. James are parishes in Cornwall, but Seaford Town is not located in any of them.

Answer: Hanover

In the 1600s, Tryall Estate was established as a sugar plantation on 2,200 acres (890 ha) of land. Later, coconut trees were planted and a Georgian Great House was added in 1834. In the 1950s the land was purchased by a group of wealthy entrepreneurs who developed a private villa resort on the estate.

Today, the club has over seventy luxury villas and is rated as one of the finest privately owned resorts in the Caribbean. Its world-class championship golf course and tennis centre have hosted several world tournaments. The site offers views of the Caribbean Sea and a private beach that is used for water sports and beach-style activities.

Vacationers at Tryall can take advantage of arrangements made by the Club's tour desk to explore the island's sightseeing attractions, restaurants and nightspots. Tours of the property's historic ruins that include a functioning giant 200-year-old cast-iron water wheel, an old cast-iron boiler and a beautiful brick structure chimney are also available.

Because of its history, Tryall Club has been designated a National Heritage Foundation site.

Tryall Club is not located in the parishes of Trelawny, St. James and Westmoreland.

Answer: Black River

Black River is both the name of a seaport town, the capital of the parish of St. Elizabeth, and the name of a river in the same parish. Dating from as early as 1685, the town is one of the oldest in Jamaica. The river was once believed to be the longest river on the island, but it has now lost this distinction to Rio Minho, a river in Clarendon.

The river passes through an area called the Black River Morass which is a biologically diverse and extremely complex freshwater wetland ecosystem. The Morass is formed by the river and its tributaries making a large freshwater swamp, with lagoons, limestone islands, and mangrove swamps scattered throughout.

The Morass is the largest freshwater wetland wildlife habitat in the Caribbean and has been designated a wetlands site of international importance. It supports a large number of plant and animal species and provides breeding grounds for a diverse range of wildlife. In common with many of Jamaica's precious natural resources that host living organisms, this area is increasingly threatened by pollution from agriculture, industrial activities and tourism and cannot wait for planned environmental protection programmes to be implemented.

During the plantation era, the Martha Brae River in Trelawny was used to connect the sugar estates in that parish to the port town of Falmouth. Bamboo rafts were used to float sugar and other crops to the harbour before being loaded on to ships bound for Europe. Nowadays, visitors are taken rafting on the river through dense jungle of trees.

The Rio Minho is Jamaica's longest river at 57.7 miles (92.8 km) measured from its source in the Dry Harbour Mountains on the eastern boundary of the Cockpit Country to the point at which it enters the Caribbean Sea at Carlisle Bay. Rainfall is the main source of the Rio Minho's water and the watershed is vulnerable to droughts, flooding, landslides and soil erosion.

The Cabarita is a small, spring-fed river that drains the Georges Plain in Westmoreland. It is best known for its rapids which are used for whitewater rafting and kayaking.

Answer: Bogue Islands

Despite their name, the Bogue Islands were cays, also spelled keys, rather than islands in the proper geographic meaning of the term. Cays can be described as small, low-lying islets composed of sand and coral and are found in some of the world's tropical regions.

Up until 1969, the Bogue Islands were a cluster of cays in the western area of the waters that formed the Montego Bay harbour. The lagoon in which the islands stood had a wild and undisturbed ecosystem. The reclamation project connected ten of the 14 islands and eliminated or damaged all the elements of the marine ecosystem: mangroves, sea grass, coral, fish and various forms of aquatic life. In addition, the construction of homes and business properties, the development of the lagoon area also introduced long-term human environmental impact in the area.

A number of measures have now been instituted to restore and preserve the marine ecology. The Bogue Lagoon Fish Sanctuary and the Montego Bay Marine Park Fish Sanctuary have been declared special conservation areas reserved for the reproduction of fish populations. It is now illegal to fish within either of these protected areas.

In 1991, the Montego Bay Marine Park Trust was formed to manage the Montego Bay Marine Park. The Park is that vast area of protected sea water surrounding the entire length of the Montego Bay harbour. The Park staff ensure that the activities of visitors have a minimal impact on the environment. They also conduct research and monitor the quality of the mangrove forests, beaches, river estuaries, corals and sea grass beds and the animals that inhabit the area. All of these measures are aimed at preserving the underwater environment for the benefit of future generations.

The Pedro Cays are four small, flat, low-lying and mostly uninhabited islands that form a part of the Pedro Bank and lie fifty miles (80 km) to the south-southwest of Jamaica. They were made part of Jamaica by the British in 1882 and are considered part of the Kingston, a parish in the County of Surrey. The cays are rich in marine biodiversity and are a significant source of income for Jamaican fishers and fish vendors. The cays are regionally important seabird nesting and roosting areas, provide several endangered turtle species with nesting grounds, and yield some guano and coconuts.

Morant Cays are four low-lying, mostly uninhabited cays located 32 miles (51 km) south-southeast off Morant Point, Jamaica. The cays are grouped closely together along the southeastern rim of an extensive coral bank known as Morant Bank. The cays have sparse vegetation and are a seabird rookery and turtle nesting area. Fishermen visit the area seasonally and bird's eggs and guano are collected from time to time. The cays were added to Jamaica by the British in 1882 and are administered as part of St. Thomas, another parish in Surrey.

The Goat Islands are located less than a mile off the coast of Old Harbour Bay, on the south coast of Jamaica. The islands consist of 14 small islands that are part of the Portland Bight Protected Area, Jamaica's largest marine protected area. Over 130 unique species of plant and animal life are known to exist there. The largest of the islands, Great Goat Island, comprises 600 acres (243 ha) and Little Goat Island is 300 acres (121 ha) in size. The islands are officially a part of the parish of St. Catherine in Middlesex County.