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Irish Town

From the hamlet at Papine on the northern tier of Kingston, you can continue on the winding road north to Irish Town, going via The Cooperage, a tiny hamlet taking its name from the Irish coopers who lived and worked here in the 19th century. They made wooden barrels to hold the Blue Mountain coffee that was transported to Kingston, where it was later shipped to the ports of New York, Boston, and London.

At The Cooperage, 2 miles (3km) to the north of Papine, the Blue Mountain Inn is one of the most famous restaurants in Jamaica. From here, you can continue north to Irish Town, also named for the coopers who lived here, or else swing east toward Mavis Bank.

For this route, however, we'll continue north to Irish Town, home to Chris Blackwell's magnificent Strawberry Hill. This is the premier place for food and lodging in the Blue Mountains; Bob Marley was brought to this site to recover in 1976 after an attempt on his life by a gunman. In later years other visitors have included Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, and U2.

Right above Irish Town, the Bl highway passes by the Craighton Estate, a coffee plantation producing Blue Mountain coffee and offering hour-long tours of the plant for $20 per person. The estate lies only a short stroll from Strawberry Hill and is now owned by Ushima, Japans largest coffee company.

Nearby is a hamlet called Redlight that was once one of the most notorious villages in the West Indies, filled with whorehouses catering to the soldiers stationed in barracks at Newcastle.

After Redlight, the winding B1 takes you to:

Newcastle

This village has one of the best views of Kingston from any vantage point in the Blue Mountains. Towering over Newcastle is the 5,060-foot (1,542m) Catherine's Peak, named for Lady Catherine Long, the first woman to scale it - in 1760! It's the highest point in the parish of St. Andrew. A little road off the B1 just north of here takes you to the summit, often shrouded in mist.

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