The Buff Bay Valley

The Buff Bay Valley runs from the crest of the Blue Mountains at Hardwar Gap down to the town of Buff Bay on Portland's north coast. The road that follows it links Kingston to coffee farms, small communities and a river town that once governed a parish of its own.

Where is the Buff Bay Valley?

The valley follows the Buff Bay River from high in the Blue Mountains down to the Caribbean coast in Portland Parish. Wikipedia records the river's mouth near coordinates 18°14′N 76°40′W, on the parish's north side, and places Buff Bay town itself a little further along the coast, adjoined by the districts of Windsor Castle and Hart Hill. The valley forms one of the main breaks in the mountain wall that separates Kingston and St Andrew from Portland's coast, which is a large part of why the road through it has mattered for so long.

The road over Hardwar Gap

The route from Kingston to Buff Bay climbs through St Andrew, past Newcastle, and crosses the main ridge at Hardwar Gap before dropping into the valley on the Portland side. Wikivoyage's guide to the Blue Mountains describes Hardwar Gap as the point where St Andrew and Portland parishes meet, marked by a noticeable change in vegetation and climate as mist settles over one of the island's few remaining stretches of mountain forest. Once over the gap, the road runs down through the valley, passing, according to the same guide, a small town called Section, where local farmers sell roasted coffee beans directly along the roadside. The recreation area at the top of the gap is covered on Holywell and Hardwar Gap.

Buff Bay: a former parish capital

Buff Bay town has buildings dating from the early nineteenth century, according to Wikipedia, and was once the capital of a parish also named Buff Bay, before that parish was divided into what are now St Mary and Portland. St George's Parish Church, an Anglican building on the seaside of the town, survives from that period, when Buff Bay carried more administrative weight than it does today. The town's older history helps explain why the valley's road was built and maintained in the first place: it connected a working port and parish seat to the farming country in the hills above.

Coffee and farming in the valley

Coffee grows on the upper slopes of the valley, in the country that falls within Portland's share of the Blue Mountain coffee area; the parish's coffee, its communities and its climate are covered in more depth on Portland: Blue Mountain coffee on the northern slopes. The Jamaica Information Service reported on a meeting of the Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Farmers Association held at Lynch Park in Buff Bay, where the then chairman of the Coffee Industry Board, Howard Mitchell, told farmers the industry had suffered from bad weather and mismanagement, and officials discussed improving farm roads in coffee-producing communities. That meeting, held in the valley's main town, reflects how Buff Bay has long served as a gathering point for coffee growers working the slopes above it, even though the town itself sits at sea level.

The valley's farms sit within the same broad elevation band described for the range as a whole, generally between 3,000 and 5,500 feet, though the valley floor itself drops to sea level at Buff Bay. That range in height, packed into a comparatively short distance, is part of why the drive down from Hardwar Gap passes through such different conditions in the space of a few miles: cool, misty coffee ground near the top, giving way to warmer banana and coconut country and finally the coast. General background on that elevation band and how it is defined is on the Blue Mountain growing region.

Visiting the Buff Bay Valley

The drive from Kingston over Hardwar Gap to Buff Bay is one of the more dramatic crossings in the Blue Mountains, moving from coffee farms and forest at altitude down to a coastal town within about an hour's drive. The road is narrow and winding in places, and it is worth checking current conditions before making the crossing, especially after heavy rain. Travelers coming from the coffee country further east, around Hagley Gap and Mavis Bank, generally reach Buff Bay by a longer route around the mountains rather than over Hardwar Gap directly.