Green Grotto Caves

Where it sits. The Green Grotto Caves lie on the north coast of Saint Ann parish, between Runaway Bay and Discovery Bay, about 20 kilometres west of Ocho Ríos and just inland of the coast road. The entrance is unspectacular — a fenced compound, a ticket office, a rack of hard hats — and gives no hint of the scale below. The system runs to something over a kilometre of surveyed passage on several levels, of which a guided route of roughly 500 metres is open, dropping through chambers, squeezes and galleries to a subterranean lake about twelve metres below ground level whose water is tidal and connected to the sea.

How the caves formed. The whole north coast of Jamaica is white limestone laid down in the Tertiary period, and this is classic phreatic and vadose cave development: groundwater dissolved passages along joints and bedding planes while the water table stood higher, then the land rose, the water drained, and dripping water began to build stalactites, flowstone and columns in the drained chambers. The lower level is still at water table, which is why Green Grotto Lake sits there — clear, still, faintly green, and rising and falling a few centimetres with the tide outside. The name comes from the algae that colonises rock near the openings where daylight reaches in. Several bat species roost through the system, including Jamaican fruit bats, and guano is a live part of the ecology, so the hard hat is not a formality.

Four centuries of use. The caves were known to the Taíno, whose remains and artefacts have been recovered here. In 1655, when an English expedition took Jamaica from Spain, Spanish colonists are recorded as having used the caves as a hiding place while arranging their escape to Cuba — the tradition that gave both Runaway Bay and Discovery Bay their names. In the following century the passages sheltered runaway enslaved people, and later smugglers, who found a cave with a sea connection convenient. During the Second World War the site was used for storage, and in the mid twentieth century part of it operated as a nightclub called the Grotto Gardens, with a dance floor and bar built into a chamber — the concrete of that installation is still visible. The site is now run by the Urban Development Corporation with trained guides.

On screen. Green Grotto is the underground lair of Dr Kananga in Live and Let Die (1973), the eighth Eon Bond film, Guy Hamilton's last and Roger Moore's first. The film invents the Caribbean republic of San Monique, where Kananga, played by Yaphet Kotto, grows opium poppies under cover of voodoo, and the caves supply the interior of his subterranean base — Bond and the tarot reader Solitaire, played by Jane Seymour, are brought down into them, and the passages and lake are used as they are, with lighting rigs and set dressing rather than construction. The shark pool and the finale were built at Pinewood. The unit's other Jamaican location was a crocodile farm near Falmouth in Trelawny, owned by a man named Ross Kananga, from whom the villain took his surname; Kananga himself performed the stunt in which Bond escapes across the backs of live crocodiles, and it took five attempts and left him injured.

What the tour is like. Groups go with a guide, hard hats issued at the desk, on a route of about 45 minutes to an hour. The floor is uneven natural rock with steps and handrails in the worst places, the ceiling is low in several passages, and the air is warm, humid and around 26 degrees regardless of the season outside. Guides point out the formations with the usual repertoire of resemblances, but the substance is in the history and the lake chamber, where the water is lit and reflects the ceiling almost perfectly. Photography is permitted; flash is needed and the surfaces are damp, so a hand-held camera and reasonable footwear are the sensible combination. The caves are wholly unsuitable for wheelchair users and difficult for anyone with knee or balance problems.

Getting there and timing. The site sits directly on the A1 north coast road, about an hour east of Montego Bay and half an hour west of Ocho Ríos, and any route taxi between the two will stop. Cruise excursions arrive from both ports in the mid-morning, so the first tour of the day and the last two hours of the afternoon are quieter. The caves are open year-round and, being underground, are the one attraction on this coast that a rainy day does not spoil; heavy prolonged rain can occasionally raise the lake level and shorten the route.