This range of low-lying hills rises inland of Negril’s West End. The raised limestone upland is wild and smothered in brush. Tiny hamlets sprinkle the single road that provides access from Negril: Whitehall Rd leads south from Sheffield Rd to the hamlet of Orange Hill, swings east through the hills via the town of Retirement, and eventually links to the A2 for Savanna-la-Mar.
Seemingly a world away from the Negril strip, Abba Jahnehoy’s Garden is a three-story meditation and learning center poised on a hill that offers a splendid panoramic view extending down to the sea. Solar powered and surrounded by a vegetable and root garden, the octagonal building is the work of Janhoi Jaja. He’s a gracious Rasta who is more than happy to discuss the ins and outs of Rastafarianism, or reggae or Negril’s development or the finer points of numerology (or all of the above) over bowls of his excellent soup, homemade from his garden’s produce. Getting there is half the fun, as the garden’s located at the end of a series of unmarked dirt roads: either take the Westland Mountain Rd to the top and then ask, or give Janhoi himself a call.
The only other site of note in the hills is Whitehall Great House , in ruins following a fire in 1985. Don’t be fooled into paying for a tour by the locals who hang out and attempt to attach themselves as self-described ‘guides.’
