Castle Harbour, Bermuda

Castle Harbour is a large natural harbour in Bermuda. It is located between the northeastern end of the main island and St. David's Island. Originally called Southampton Port, it was renamed as a result of its heavy fortification in the early decades of the Seventeenth century.

A gem of Bermuda's coastline, it is surrounded by St. George's Parish in the north, east, south (Tucker's Town), and Hamilton Parish in the west. A chain of islands and rocks stretches across the main opening to the Atlantic Ocean, in the east, notably Cooper's Island (which was made a landmass contiguous to St. David's Island and Longbird Island in the 1940s), and Nonsuch Island. The only channel suitable for large vessels to enter the harbour from the open Atlantic is Castle Roads, which was historically guarded by a number of fortifications, on Castle Island, Southampton Island, and Charles Island. Forts were also placed nearby on other small islands, and on the Tucker's Town peninsula of the Main Island. In the west, The Causeway crosses from the main island to St. David's Island, and beyond this a stretch of water known as Ferry Reach connects the harbour with St. George's Harbour to the north, where Bermuda's first permanent settlement, St. George's Town, was founded in 1612. An unincorporated settlement, Tucker's Town, was established on the peninsula of the Main Island at the south-west of the harbour. The settlement was cleared by compulsory purchase order in the 1920s in order to create a luxury enclave where homes could be purchased by wealthy foreigners, and the attendant Mid Ocean Golf Club. In Hamilton Parish, on the western shore of the harbour, lies Walsingham Bay, the site where, in 1609-10, the crew of the wrecked Sea Venture built the Patience, one of two ships built, which carried most of the survivors of the wrecking to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1610. The Patience returned to Bermuda with Admiral Sir George Somers, who died in Bermuda later that year.

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