Qualla: Cabrits National Park

Cabrits National Park: Introduction

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans Hillewaert, CC BY-SA 3.0. The name means goats. Sailors used to drop them on Caribbean headlands as living provisions - a herd waiting for the next ship to need fresh meat. The goats are gone from Cabrits, but the peninsula they named still juts into the sea between Prince Rupert Bay and Toucar Bay on Dominica's northwest coast, a 1,313-acre knot of volcanic peaks, dry forest, wetland, and coral reef that became a national park in 1986. What draws most visitors, though, is not the wildlife or the hiking. It's the ruins scattered across the hillsides - the remains of Fort Shirley, a British garrison that witnessed one of the most remarkable acts of defiance in Caribbean history.

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Image: Hans Hillewaert | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cabrits National Park: Born from Fire and Ocean

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit XeresNelro, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cabrits was once its own island. The twin volcanic peaks - East Cabrit at 140 meters and West Cabrit at 171 meters - erupted from the sea roughly a million years ago, part of a formation once called Morne au Diable. Over geological time, sediment and coral built a low-lying conne...

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Image: XeresNelro | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cabrits National Park: The Garrison on the Headland

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dillngerforce, Public domain. Fort Shirley's strategic logic is obvious the moment you see it. The peninsula commands the approach to Prince Rupert Bay, one of the best natural harbors in the Leeward Islands, and the site offered clear sightlines in every direction. The British built it into a formidable mili...

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Image: Dillngerforce | Public domain

Cabrits National Park: Restoration and Ruin

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jsdthree at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. After the British abandoned Fort Shirley in 1854, the tropical forest did what tropical forests do. Roots split stonework. Vines swallowed gun emplacements. Rain dissolved mortar. For over a century, the garrison slowly vanished beneath a canopy of mahogany, teak, and hibiscus - ...

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Image: Jsdthree at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Cabrits National Park: Trail's End at the Sea

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Postdlf, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cabrits holds one more distinction: it is the final destination of the Waitukubuli National Trail, Dominica's 115-mile hiking route that runs the full length of the island from Scott's Head in the south. Segment 14 of the trail descends from the village of Capuchin into the park,...

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Image: Postdlf | CC BY-SA 3.0