Cat Island – Loyalist settlement of 1783 and the Hermitage on Mount Alvernia
The Lucayan people called this island Guanima, “middle waters land”. Its first European settlers were Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, who arrived in 1783 and built wealth on cotton plantations. For a long time Cat Island was even thought to be Guanahaní, where Columbus first landed; in 1926 an act of parliament officially gave it its present name, possibly after the pirate Arthur Catt. On Mount Alvernia, the highest point of the Bahamas at 63 metres, stands the Hermitage, a small monastery built by the Franciscan “Brother Jerome” (John Hawes). Today islanders live largely from farming, and cascarilla bark gathered here is shipped to Italy. Do you have stories from Cat Island? Share them with the community!