Our History
Green Castle Estate has a vibrant and fascinating history. Evidence of Green Castle’s past can be experienced in surprising places all over the Estate. Visitors can step inside our historic windmill tower built in the early 1700’s, or find shards of pottery on Davey Hill from the original Green Castle inhabitants, the Taino Indians. The landscape is inspiring, and as you sit on the Estate House veranda looking out to sea, you can image tall ships coming into Jacks Bay to collect sugar, rum, cocoa and bananas to take back to European markets. Take a walk on the beach and you will see pieces of brick and English coal dropped on the beach when it was a busy port during Green Castle’s plantation days.
Green Castle’s rich Jamaican heritage is helping us to define its future. After more than 50 years of ownership by the Cargill Company’s MacMillan Family, Richard Padgett bought Green Castle in 2007. Richard’s plan is to respect the cultural heritage of the Estate with a sustainable development. Green Castle is deliberately building a long term plan for sustainable tourism and agriculture that integrates the local community, local business partners, and Greencastle Tropical Study Center, a nonprofit. All Green Castle stakeholders are working toward financially viable and environmentally friendly tourism and land uses that are sustainable and in harmony with the diverse eco-systems that make Green Castle the special place that it is.
Come for a visit, and you are helping us build a sustainable future, writing a modern chapter in Green Castle’s fascinating history.
| Robins Bay Road, St. Mary, Jamaica