The Jamaican Forestry Department offers cabins and dormitories in the Blue
Mountains, but permits must be paid for and picked up in advance at the Kingston
office. You cannot simply show up at the site and pay. JATCHA can make the
reservations and have the permits waiting for you. No linens, blankets or
kitchen utensils are at any of the forest camps.
Camping and cabin reservations for all but Whitfield Hall can be made by
calling the forestry department at 876/924-2667 or 876/924-2668.
Hollywell National Recreation Park offers tent camping
and several cabins with fireplace, small kitchen and full bathroom. (This
site is often called Holywell National Recreation Area.)
Clydesdale is an old coffee plantation/pine nursery at 3,700
feet with a bunk bed dormitory that can sleep 30 and more. Flush toilets,
showers and a fire pit for cooking.
The walk from Clydesdale to the public Cinchona Botanical Gardens
takes about an hour, where tent camping is available.
On the hike up Blue Mountain Peak, most people overnight at the privately
owned Whitfield Hall Hostel, which may also
permit you to tent camp; 876/927-0986.
About 1 to 1-1/2 hours beyond Whitfield Hall on the way to the peak is the
Portland Gap forestry hut
at 5,200 feet. The hut is rustic and you sleep on the floor. It also has running
water, an outhouse and space for about 30 tents. Given a choice between Whitfield
Hall (which does supply linens, etc.) and the forest hut, there is no choice
unless you like the hermit life.
At Blue Mountain Peak itself is a rough, graffiti-covered
forest hut often used by partying groups from Kingston on weekends. Water
may not be readily available, and it gets quite cold at the peak from December
through February. Tent camping is permitted.
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