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Devil's Bridge

Devil's Bridge

Coasts & CliffsAntigua and BarbudaSaint Philip Parish, Antigua,Antigua and Barbuda

A fossil-reef arch on the one Antiguan headland facing open Atlantic, its platform drilled with blowholes that boom before they spout, unfenced and dangerous.

September·Peaking now

Sep–Nov

Nesting runs to mid-November and the first hatchlings dig out and scramble for the sea; the water is at its warmest, near 29°C. These are also the wettest months and the peak of Atlantic hurricane season, when a passing system can churn the coast.



Year-round The arch, the blowholes and the fossil reef platform are here every day of the year; only the size of the swell and the turtles come and go.

Devil's Bridge is an arch of fossil reef on the eastern headland of Antigua, in Antigua and Barbuda, the one point of the island that faces the open Atlantic, and its platform of limestone is drilled with blowholes that boom under the feet before they spout, on a headland that is unfenced and dangerous, where the swell arrives with nothing between it and Africa. The rock walked out on is a dead reef turned to stone, with corals and shells legible in the platform, and the sea has undercut it into the arch and bored the blowholes through it; the way to see it is to stand back and wait, since a big set arrives, the rock thumps underfoot and a moment later the holes let go in a column of spray, hardest in winter when the groundswell of North Atlantic storms meets the Christmas trade winds and the spray carries clean across the platform. The name comes from the accounts of enslaved people who threw themselves from the rock, believing the current off this headland would carry them home to West Africa, and the island tells it as the place the devil takes his own. The headland is inside a national park with beaches on either side, and Half Moon Bay to the south is the island's finest, where the Atlantic hits the reef across the mouth of the bay and arrives at the sand as something that can be swum in, with the wind for the kitesurfers at the far end. From June to November hawksbill turtles, hunted almost to extinction for their shell, come ashore after dark on the park's beaches to lay about 150 eggs at a time, and the crawl is still written on the sand at dawn, two parallel drag marks running up to the dry line and back, with the hatchlings digging out two months later. The bridge itself is not walked across any more, since people have been swept off it. Devil's Bridge is a reef the sea is breaking through, and the blowholes are the sound of it.

Worth knowing

Good to know

  • Watch one full set of waves roll through before you step anywhere — the sea here arrives in groups, and the ledge that looks safely dry is often the one the biggest wave washes.
  • Come in the afternoon and the sun is behind you, lighting the arch and the spray; in the morning you are looking straight into the sunrise over the Atlantic and everything turns to silhouette.
  • The last stretch in is rough dirt — there is no gate and no ticket, and almost no shade once you are out on the rock.
  • Sargassum weed can blanket this windward coast from late spring into summer — it drifts in and out with the currents, so check a recent photo before planning a beach day there.

Things to do

  1. 1

    Feel the blowholes go off beneath the platform

    Feel the blowholes go off beneath the platform

    Stand back from the arch and wait: a big set arrives, the rock thumps underfoot, and a moment later the blowholes let go in a column of spray. The sound comes up through the limestone before you see anything, which is the part nobody warns you about.

  2. 2

    Swim at Half Moon Bay behind the reef

    Swim at Half Moon Bay behind the reef

    The Atlantic hits the reef across the mouth of the bay and arrives at the sand as something you can actually swim in. Dark patches of coral lie just under the surface, close enough to reach on a slow swim out from the sheltered end. It is the calm counterweight to the arch: a long crescent of white sand on a coast that is otherwise all rock and spray.

  3. 3

    Find last night's turtle tracks in the sand

    Find last night's turtle tracks in the sand

    From June to November hawksbill turtles come ashore after dark on the park's beaches, and the crawl is still written on the sand at dawn: two parallel drag marks running up to the dry line and back. Walk early, keep your distance from any fresh nest, and you may be the only person who reads it.

  4. 4

    Read the fossils in the platform underfoot

    Read the fossils in the platform underfoot

    The rock you walk out on is a dead reef turned to stone. Its surface is a catalogue of what built it: coral heads sliced flat by weathering, shell outlines, and the round pits where sea urchins sat. Pick a patch of dry limestone back from the spray and it takes a minute of looking before the shapes separate from the rock.

Watch

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