Gibbet Island Beach

The beauty of Gibbet Island and its idyllic facing coves belies an ugly past. Its name refers to the gallows post that once stood on the island, a site where slaves and criminals were hanged, their bodies on public display as a warning to passing maritime traffic. Such history remains a sore spot for the island’s black—and white—communities in the ongoing effort to foster harmonious race relations over 170 years after Emancipation in Bermuda. If there is any peaceful closure, it is the happy laughter of children of both races who mingle all summer on this popular, though private, little atoll, generally called “Gibbet’s,” but officially named Gibbons Bay. There are actually two islands (the smaller is Little Gibbet), each with tiny coves and reefs separating the area into sheltered swimming and anchoring spots. Longtails nest in the roadside cliffs, and kingfishers sit on the power line between the islands, eyeing their fish prey before darting over the water beneath.

While the majority of the property is owned by a private family trust, numerous groups have been granted access in the past, including families of police officers in the 1970s and 1980s when Gibbet’s was known as the “Police Beach.” (My father, a Welsh-born sergeant, was a member of the local Force for two decades, so I practically grew up here.) General access to the property is today possible via the restored Railway Trail, since Gibbet’s sits at the end of the Smith’s Parish section of this popular walking route. Indeed, the old concrete supports remain above the beach on its grassy verge, and two large bridge pylons stand in the water at the mouth of Flatts Inlet—over which the train used to travel to and from Shelly Bay and points east.

The area’s trio of bays have become favorite stopping places for pleasure craft, day cruises, even fishermen who come to gather schools of silver fry in large nets. Snorkelers and scuba-divers also come here, since the sides of Flatts Inlet and the two islands offer reams of fish, rays, and reeflife, including anemones, eels, sea fans, corals, and occasionally, for patient observers, rare glimpses of a seahorse. Be careful of the current flowing in the Inlet, especially at peak tidal times, as well as boats, for it is a major thoroughfare to Flatts Village moorings and Harrington Sound. A locked roadside gate prevents vehicular access to the beach, so parking is a problem. Locals tuck mopeds into the hedge at the top, or park in the Jennings Land estate opposite.