Barbuda travel guide

Some 30 miles to the north of Antigua is Barbuda, a flat coral island 68 miles square, one of the two island dependencies of Antigua. A visit here is like going back in time: there are few paved roads, no crime and the people are friendly – life is slow and simple.

Most residents live in the only village on the island, Codrington, which stands on the edge of a large lagoon. Barbuda has a fascinating history, having been privately owned in colonial times by the Codrington family, who used it to supply their sugar estates on Antigua with food and slaves. This caused problems after emancipation as all property belonged to the Codringtons and the freed slaves were trapped with no jobs, no land and no laws. After many years and court cases, Antiguan law was applied to the island, but while Barbudans may own their own houses, all other land is generally held by the Government. In places you can see the remains of the stone wall used to demarcate the limit of the village within which everybody had to live until 1976, when the creation of a local government inspired people to move further afield. You can also see the village well which was used to draw water until the 1980s.

This is one of the few islands in the area where there is still abundant wildlife, although much of it has been introduced by man (duck, guinea fowl, plover, pigeon, wild deer, pigs, goats, sheep, horses and donkeys), left over from the Codrington era.

There is an impressive Frigate Bird Sanctuary (the largest colony in the world) in the mangroves in Codrington Lagoon, particularly on Man of War Island where thousands of birds mate and breed between August and February. The sanctuary is worth a visit and the sight of 10,000 frigates raising their young is stunning . Visitors are taken to only one or two spots to view the birds, and ropes keep the boats from getting too close. The rest of the birds are left entirely at peace. There are also brown boobies nesting alongside the frigates, and pelicans can be seen in the lagoon. An endemic warbler (Dendroica subita) lives on Barbuda and although DNA studies have been carried out, numbers and habitat requirements are so far unknown.

The Gunchup Caves near Two Foot Bay are interesting to explore. Men have used them for shelter since the days of the Amerindians. Dark Cave is home to a blind shrimp (Typhlatya monae) found only in these pools and in the Mona Island off Puerto Rico, but access is difficult. A road is planned. The island has a Martello tower and fort, the most complete historical site on the island. The tower is 56 ft high and once had nine guns to defend the southwest approach. From Codrington, River Road runs three miles to Palmetto Point, past Cocoa Point and on to Spanish Point, a half-mile finger of land that divides the Atlantic from the Caribbean Sea. There is a small ruin of a lookout post here and the most important Arawak settlements found in Barbuda. Horse racing takes place on a dirt track south of Codrington. You can sometimes see the horses being exercised around the island and taken for a swim behind a boat in the lagoon.

Detailed maps are available locally from the Codrington post office, otherwise from the map shop in Jardine Court, St Mary’s, St John’s, or the Barbuda Board of Tourism in Antigua see page ....read more