Cotton farms and Campari. Loyalist landowners and pillaging pirates. These have composed the history of the Acklins and Crooked Island, two islands in the Bahamas that remain as unspoiled as they were when Columbus first set foot here.
The Acklins and Crooked Island are replete with caves, coves, rock formations and sleepy white beaches. There are tiny villages with poetic names like Snug Corner, Gun Point, Cripple Hill and True Blue. Spanish treasure fleets sailing through the Crooked Island Passage were often targeted by pirates, who found the seclusion and privacy of the Acklins as compelling as it is to today’s traveler. The lack of tourists is one of Acklins and Crooked Islands’ greatest assets. There are no glitzy resorts here, no hoards of raucous partiers, just a serene swath of beautiful beaches and briny lagoons where the air dances with the colors of exotic birds and butterflies, adrift on the exotic, cascarilla scented breeze. Interestingly the bark of cascarilla is used to make the liqueur known as Campari, and has been harvested here since the 1800s by the descendents of former slaves. Sights to see include the Marine Farms Fortress, the Bird Rock Lighthouse and Fortune Island, where sits the ghost town of Albert.
