History of The Old Fort Estate

While exploring the island, the owners stumbled upon a lonely spot some 140 m above the sea, a place with a glorious view over The Grenadines. Formidable walls, ancient water cisterns and heavy foundations, abandoned!

The discovery haunted them. When they returned to Bequia the next year, they were able to purchase the land where the ruins stood. When the excavation began, more ruins were uncovered - a building which suggested a distinct Mediterranean style. Thus the detective work began. What had they discovered?

The first European settlers in the Grenadine islands were French. They had a string of fortifications along the islands to protect their interests against the English. But the French were mainly there as planters. People remembered that there had been a plantation on the site and, sure enough, Otmar and Sonja were able to track down the 18th century maps - dating back to 1763 - showing a sugar-and indigo plantation on the site with the estate house marked.

In old records they found the names of the early French settlers: Met Me Pierre et Therese Audain. Up to this day the name still exists in St. Vincent.

When the construction finally exposed a sturdy gateway, with protecting flanks and a huge oven, the challenge was obvious. The new building had to grow out of the old. To match the traditional style, the same beautiful stones were used as well as timber from the local forest. The ceiling beams and rafters were left exposed and natural. The arches, cisterns and most of the stone floors had to be rebuilt by Bequia’s skilled craftsmen, while using imaginative reconstruction, based on how the original looked and might have looked. It took several years.

Today the tower of The Old Fort can been seen crowning Mt. Pleasant Point, surrounded by shaded terraces and gardens, as many trees were planted. We now operate as a exclusive villa, a place to relax away from everything.

The 21st century visitor can watch the glittering sea below and the emerald islands stretching to the South including the little “’Prom Queen” sister island Mustique and distant Grenada. Little changed from the time more than 200 years ago.

Listed as one of Outside Magazines's, Travel Guide 1997/98, "Top Ten Finds".

Gourmet Magazine, Dec. 2005 says: "...dramatic hilltop perch with expansive views of neighbouring islands. It's Top Tower Room, with stone walls, vaulted ceilings, and tilt-up windows that open to the trade winds, could be the most romantic on the islands..."