This well-curated, revamped museum, peppered with period objects, takes you through the history of western Jamaica, from the Cohaba ceremonies of the indigenous Taínos and the arrival of the Spanish, followed by the English, to the transatlantic slave trade, the advent of king sugar, Maroon rebellions, emancipation and the development of 20th-century Montego Bay as a tourist destination. A separate room introduces you to the rise of Rastafarianism, the alleged divinity of Haile Selassie and the back-to-Africa movement.
National Museum West
Top choice in Montego Bay
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
24.82 MILES
You can smell the sweetness of molasses wafting from the Appleton Estate well before you reach it, almost a mile northeast of Maggotty. The largest and…
22.97 MILES
Deeply secluded in St Elizabeth parish, you’d be forgiven for thinking YS Falls emerged out of Eden. This series of seven cascades, hemmed in by limestone…
7.22 MILES
This splendid 1770s mansion is the most famous great house in Jamaica. John Palmer, a wealthy plantation owner, and his wife, Rose (after whom the house…
9.78 MILES
This marvelous estate, sitting high on a hill, is not as famous as Jamaica's most famous great house, but offers a far more intimate and interesting…
28.91 MILES
Seven Mile Beach was initially touted on tourism posters as ‘seven miles of nothing but you and the sea.’ True, sunbathers still lie half submerged in the…
13.28 MILES
Few of Jamaica's waterfall experiences match Mayfield Falls for crowd-free natural beauty. Picture this: you climb into the cool river beneath giant…
11.97 MILES
A lane lined with palm trees leads you to the landscaped grounds of Hampden Great House estate, dotted with strutting peacocks. Tours assemble beneath a…
26.26 MILES
The soothing sound of a million leaves rustling in the wind is one of the quiet pleasures of this photogenic tunnel of towering bamboo. The 4km-long…
Nearby Montego Bay attractions
1. Montego Bay Cultural Centre
At the southwest corner of Sam Sharpe Sq you’ll find the copper-domed Civic Centre, an elegant colonial-style, cut-stone building on the site of a ruined…
0.03 MILES
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In its current reincarnation as a craft shop, the Cage was built in 1806 as a lockup for drunk and disorderly sailors, vagrants and slaves who failed to…
0.14 MILES
Regarded as the finest church on the island, it was originally built between 1775 and 1782, but was so damaged by the earthquake of March 1, 1957, that it…
6. Community & Workers of Jamaica Credit Union
0.16 MILES
At the corner of King St and Church St is a redbrick Georgian building harboring the Community & Workers of Jamaica Credit Union. It's a historic landmark…
7. Burchell Memorial Baptist Church
0.17 MILES
Two blocks east of Sam Sharpe Sq is one of the churches in which Sam Sharpe is said to have been a deacon. The building, which dates to 1835, is a slice…
0.31 MILES
The bizarre-looking Creek Dome was built in 1837 above the underground spring that supplied drinking water for Montego Bay and was still in use after 1894…
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