NEWCASTLE
Address: New Castle Kingston Kingston Parish
Email: jnht@jnht.com
Website: http://www.jnht.com/site_new_castle_training_depot.php
Places to go/ Attraction in Jamaica contact number and location
Description:
Two miles below Hollywell National Forest Park sits the town of Newcastle, the common trailhead for several well-known hikes. It’s now a training camp for the Jamaica Defense Force but was established by the British back in 1841. There is a rest stop right in the middle of the camp where visitors get a stunning view of Kingston in the distance.
Nestled in the cool hills of upper St. Andrew and amidst beautiful trees, ferns, ground orchids, delicate wildflowers and a profusion of ginger lilies, is the Newcastle Training Depot founded in 1841 by Major General Sir William Maynard Gomm (later Field Marshall). Gomm, a veteran of the wars against revolutionary France and lieutenant governor of Jamaica from 1840 to 1841, relentlessly badgered the War Office in London to establish a mountain station for British soldiers in Jamaica soon after taking up his post. The idea of the hill station was first raised by Gomm in a letter dated April 7, 1840 to Governor Sir Charles Metcalfe. Gomm pointed out that while Up Park Camp was an ideal location for a barracks, it was subject to the ravages of yellow fever. In Jamaica the British garrison was stationed on the plain at Up Park Camp, Stony Hill, Fort Augusta and Port Royal. Here, on the average, 1 soldier died every 2½ days. According to Russell, the year 1838 was considered a ‘good’ year: only 91 men died. In 1839, 110 men perished and in the following year 121. Initially, the British government was conservative in approving a hill station for the troops in Jamaica. They were concerned about the expense of the venture.