Firefly Hill (Noel Coward's House)

On a property originally known as ‘Look Out’ because it had been used for that very purpose over three hundred years before, Firefly Hill was built by Sir Noel Coward, renowned British playwright, actor, and composer in 1956. Reputedly once the property of Henry Morgan, it was discovered by Noel Coward and his companion Ian Flemming, the creator of James Bond, on a visit to the island in 1948.

Eight years after Coward’s 1948 visit, he was able to build a house designed to suit the needs of one person. He rechristened the Firefly Hill property. It was in this bucolic setting that Noel Coward wrote many of his plays; he claimed that in peaceful isolation stationed at Firefly Hill he was most creative. He poignantly writes in his journal one afternoon at Firefly Hill:

The once peaceful island is full of noises; noises of tourists, noises of underlying discontent. I owe Jamaica much happiness and peace, and enjoyment, and I know now beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is all over.

Firefly Hill was declared a national monument by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust on December 31, 1992.