Marine Heritage Sites

The Maritime Heritage Trail
The Cayman Islands Maritime Heritage Trail was created by a partnership of the Museum, Department of the Environment (DoE), National Archive and National Trust. The Trail promotes the Islands’ maritime legacy, in a combined heritage, education and recreational tourism initiative.

Maritime Heritage Trail

Launched in 2003, the Trail drew inspiration from established and successful programmes in Florida and Australia. Its development also benefitted from collaboration with personnel at the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research. The Trail is a land-based driving tour around the three Cayman Islands, with 36 stops marked by signs at historically significant maritime sites. Two colourful poster/brochures, one for the Sister Islands (Cayman Brac and Little Cayman) and one for Grand Cayman, interpret the Trail for explorers.

Visitors learn in a fun and interactive way about a variety of maritime themes, activities, and industries unique to the Cayman Islands. These include maritime place names, lighthouses, maritime architecture, shipbuilding, hurricane caves, forts, turtle fishing, anchorages, early explorers, maritime activities, and shipwrecks.

Designed to have multiple values, the Trail is uniquely Caymanian and encourages a sense of national pride in existing maritime heritage resources. The widely accessible, land-based attraction encourages travel around the coastlines of all three islands. It encourages public visitation and appreciation of heritage sites, resulting in stewardship of these resources.

Shipwreck Preserves
The second initiative in Cayman’s multi-phase programme to promote and protect maritime cultural resources is the establishment of a series of Shipwreck Preserves in the waters of all three islands.

The Preserves, representing a variety of shipwrecks managed, interpreted and legally protected for the benefit of the public, will be thematically linked as the Cayman Islands Shipwreck Preserve Trail. The first Cayman Islands Shipwreck Preserve is planned for the site of the iron-hulled barque Glamis, built in Dundee, Scotland, in 1876, and wrecked under Norwegian flag, in 1913.

This site, located in shallow clear-water reef environment off East End in Grand Cayman, has been mapped by the Museum in collaboration with students from the Anthropology Department of Florida State University. The Department of the Environment and East End dive operators provided logistical support.

Composed of large sections of iron hull fragments, anchors and multiple deck features, the Glamis site will feature interpretive materials. These will comprise a bronze marker set in cement on the seabed, a laminated underwater guide for site visitors, and a topside brochure featuring the ship’s history and dramatic wrecking event. Structurally stable sites like Glamis whose histories are known are appropriate for in situ visitor interpretation.