Spittal Pond Nature Reserve

Useful Information

Location:	42 South Rd, Smiths, Bermuda. (32.3128430, -64.7277623)
Open:	no restrictions. [2024]
Fee:	free. [2024]
Classification:	Limestone Pavements
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1946	Dr. Henry Wilkinson, converts his property into a reserve, adjoining the Spittal Pond Bird Sanctuary.
10-MAY-1999	approved as Ramsar site.

Description

Spittal Pond Nature Reserve is a lake, which is the largest wildlife sanctuary in Bermuda, a pond reserve, a wetland site, and one of the seven Ramsar Sites in Bermuda. However, it is also a karst feature, and it contains other karst features too. The fact that it is a karst feature is easy to understand, because it contains brackish water. The lake is connected through caves with the sea, so it is actually the collapsed part of a drowned cave system. The caves are not visible because they are underwater.

But the most spectakular karst feature which can be seen here is a limestone pavement. If forms when limestone with cracks is dissolved by carbon dioxide rich water. The structure it gets by this process easily explains the name Checkerboard.

The area of the reserve was not developed because it was a salty marsh and unsuitable to build houses. The reserve was founded in 1946 by Dr. Henry Wilkinson, medical doctor, historian, and the founder of the Bermuda Historical Monuments Trust. He owned about 4.5 acres here, which he converted into a reserve, adjoining the Spittal Pond Bird Sanctuary. The Bermudian government later bought more land in the area and established the Spittal Pond Reserve.