This twin-peaked headland—and the ruins of the 18th-century Fort Shirley garrison—preside over Prince Rupert’s Bay, Dominica’s largest wetlands and a docking area for smaller cruise ships. An 1802 revolt here led to the British Empire abolishing all slave soldiers, making this Dominica’s most important historic destination—and now a worthy World Heritage site. A short climb leads to the restored buildings and a splendid viewpoint, complete with cannons. Longer trails spike out into the dry coastal woodlands, populated by crabs and grass snakes (Liophis juliae, known locally as kouwes).
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Historian Lennox Honychurch
Plunge into the island’s past with Dominica’s historian of record, an anthropologist with a P.h.D. from Oxford University in England. A charismatic, powerhouse lecturer and tour leader, Lennox Honychurch spearheaded the restoration of Fort Shirley, the crown jewel of Cabrits National Park and the country’s most important historic site. The 8th West India Regiment—comprised of African and Creole slaves— revolted there in 1802, protesting unpaid labor in the governor’s cane fields. As a result, the British Empire freed all its slave soldiers five years later. No time to hang with Lennox? Buy his excellent book The Dominica Story, which has been revised three times since its 1975 debut.
