The lookout
Two harbours below.
Balou46 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · giggel — CC BY 3.0 · David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada — CC BY 2.0 · User: (WT-shared) Tsandell at wts wikivoyage — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Balou46 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anneli Salo — CC BY-SA 3.0
Shirley Heights is a historic military compound on a hilltop above English Harbour in southern Antigua. It gives the island's most famous view: English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour below, white yachts on blue water and green hills to the horizon. In 1781 Governor Thomas Shirley urged that the hills above the harbour be fortified to protect the naval dockyard. Between 1781 and 1825 more than 50 structures went up here, including a fort, barracks, officers' quarters, powder magazines, a signal station and a cemetery. The only French attack, in 1803, failed at sea. Troops stayed until the 1850s. You stand at the lookout with both harbours below you and Nelson's Dockyard at the bottom. Around you grow agave and wild cactus, with birds on the branches. On the summit is the old stone lookout building, now a restaurant, where people gather at sunset. The heights are 1.2 km south-east of Nelson's Dockyard and 16 km in a straight line south-east of St John's. Sources give the Nelson's Dockyard National Park fee at US$15 to US$23 per person, from about EC$40, covering both the dockyard and Shirley Heights. The road is steep and narrow, so drive with care.
Two harbours below.
People gather in the evening.
Agave and cactus.
Dow Hill, above English Harbour, southern Antigua
Before sunset, when the light is best.
No, the park fee covers both.
