Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
worth the bother . We r ecommend y ou pass thr ough the village, as
there is little of inter est here. After y ou've left to wn, a cr ossroads to
the left, called Hirst Road, takes you to the Sunrise Family Golf Cen-
tre, a 9-hole, par-3 course that's open to the public.
At the golf course, turn right onto Pedro Castle Road, which leads to the historic 18th-
century plantation great house:
6 Pedro St. James
This national historic site is one of the major attractions of G rand
Cayman. For complete details, see p . 123. You can either visit P edro
St. James now or return at some point later if y ou don't want to stop
during your driving tour.
Back on the main road, A2 continues east and is named Poinciana Road before becom-
ing Shamrock Drive. Shamrock Drive leads to:
7 Bodden Town
This is more of a village than a to wn, where single-story homes with
corrugated-iron r oofs and wooden v erandas ev oke B ritish colonial
architecture. O nce called “S outh Side,” Bodden Town was the first
capital of G rand Cayman. “R espectable settlers” (or so the histor y
books tell us) made the to wn their home back in the 1700s. Ov er
time, Bodden Town's power and pr estige were transferred to G eorge
Town in the west.
Because it doesn't have the commercial interest of George Town or
the tourist fr enzy of S even M ile B each, Bodden Town still r etains
some of its traditional aura.
Bodden Town is named for G ov. William Bodden, who was chief
magistrate (which is vir tually the same as a go vernor) of the island
from 1776 to 1823. B ecause he did much to impr ove the life of the
islanders, Governor Bodden is known today as “the Grand Old Man
of Grand Cayman.”
You can visit G uard House Park, opposite Manse Road, where an
old guar dhouse once stood. The guar dhouse pr otected the w estern
approach to to wn, with its cannons pointed do wn a r ocky gorge
toward the sea. The two cannons that stand her e today are from the
ships involved in Cayman's most famous disaster , the Wreck of the
10 Sails (p. 108). I n a patriotic gestur e, the Caymanians sent their
antique cannons to E ngland in the dar kest days of World War II to
be melted down and rebuilt into modern weapons.
Another small battery of cannons once stood on Gun Square, Bod-
den Town's second defense point, guar ding the eastern appr oach to
the town. Two of the original cannons ar e still in place. B ehind Gun
Square is Mission House. Its first floor was constructed in the 1840s,
making it one of the oldest buildings in the Caymans.
129
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