Situated on Barbados’s rugged northern coast where crashing waves slam into 50-foot cliffs, an old hotel dies. Abandoned years ago and victim to the Atlantic Ocean’s briny wind, the North Point Surf Resort is literally a shell of its past.
For years, its 48-rooms were filled with international tourists, United States Navy soldiers stationed at a now closed base, and local Barbadians enjoying its remoteness. Perhaps its out-of-the way location on Barbados’s northern crown was the cause of the hotel’s eventual demise.
All that remains of the Surf Resort is a husk of rusting rebar, peeling paint and crumbling cement. The Olympic-sized pool was ringed with umbrellas (see the vintage postcard below) and filled with tourists and competitive swimmers. Two high-dive spring boards cast divers into the deep end. Today, the overgrown cement high-dive steps bow over algae- and trash-filled muck.
For many years, the property was for sale. I’ve reached out to local real estate brokers but could not get a definitive answer about its current status. A local lawyer represents the property but as of publishing they did respond to my inquiry.
In 2014, the Barbadian government considered buying and redeveloping the property but the project never came to fruition.
Each time I visit the ruins, I fantasize about its heyday and what was lost. I also wonder what it could become. Perhaps in another life with deep pockets or hotelier ambitions, I would restore or transform the dying resort into a Barbadian oasis.
19 Responses to “Barbados’s Crumbling North Point Surf Resort”
morris greenidge
Great Article. I was sent a photo of the postcard but have never shot the ruins as you have published. I am writing a series of Parish Profiles on Barbados and would love to use just one of your pix. Can I have your permission?. Credit for same should help revive interest in your fine article.
micahbrubin
Thank you for reaching out. You are welcome to use one image if you provide both a photo credit and link back to the post. If you would, please send a link to your article/series to studio@micahbrubin.com. Thank you!
Judith Bryan
I thoroughly enjoyed your footage. Visited there regularly as a child. My son is a Barbados Waterpolo player and we are privy to other information. Feel free to email me anytime
Theresa McGarry
Spent our honeymoon there in 1969. Remote and beautiful. Also, found a note in a bottled on the beach there which was thrown off the US France ship off of Virginia. Several years ago I contacted the person that threw it off. Still have letter!
micahbrubin
Hi Theresa,
Great to hear from you. That’s an amazing story about the bottle. Thank you for visiting and sharing!
Brenda Smith
We stayed there for a month of January in 1978. It was almost abandoned then. I had never been out of the country. North Point Surf Resort was spooky and beautiful at the same time. I had just met my boyfriend in October. We explored the island and fell in love with Barbados. We’re still together after 47 years!
micahbrubin
Amazing story and thank you for sharing. I wish I could have experienced it in its heyday or even near the end of them.
John Wissell
I remember the place in its heyday as I was stationed at the nearby Naval base ( in fact it was so small it was called a Naval Facility with 10 officers and 90 enlisted men and at the time, 1968, was considered sea duty for which we got extra pay.) The Navy had an agreement with the owners to let sailors use the facility as it was normally for guests only. The big day there was Sunday when they would serve a barbecue and buffet for the hotel guests with a nominal fee for visitors. Great memories of Saturdays and Sundays spent there. I visited Barbados about 8 years ago and checked out the resort and could not believe the condition it was in so at least I have some great memories of what it once was
micahbrubin
Hi John,
Thank you for sharing those memories. It sounds like a a fabulous post and so sad to see what the once glamorous resort has become.
Christian Barry
What a wonderful story,I and my fiancé visited North point in 1980 it was derelict by storms then we drove up there in a yellow rented beach buggy with a huge hole in the floor pan, we met a nice old lady sat in a concrete hut selling cold drinks from a ice box she told us the story of the hotel and its demise we were the only couple there that day ,The wind wind was so powerful we couldn’t stand for long it was really eerie grey clouds moving so fast in the passing system . I said to my fiancé at the time I day they will redevelop this site but looking back I was wrong ,the winds are so fearsome people won’t come.
We stayed at the glitter bay Hotel before it was redeveloped it was wonderful, We came back to island on our honeymoon and stayed at Discovery bay 3 visits in all fondest memories,Thank you Barbados x
micahbrubin
Hi Christian,
Many thanks for sharing your experiences there. It’s such a magical place!
Micah
micahbrubin
Hi Christian,
Many thanks for sharing your experiences there. It’s such a magical place!
Micah
Minette McQueeney
my family spent Christmas there when I was about 14, probably 1968. it was a beautiful place, a great place to stay. it breaks my heart to see what’s left. thank you for sharing this story.
micahbrubin
Thank you for sharing. Seems like it was a dreamy place in is heyday.
Michael
My mother and father took myself and my three brothers here when I was 6 years old. I am now 64 years old. This was our first trip to the island of Barbados. Very cool pictures. I have been back to visit the old hotel many years ago.
micahbrubin
It truly seems like it was a special place with so many fond memories.
Tim
From Pattie Boyd’s autobiography:
After a week some friends who were in New York came to join us—Terry
Howard was the creative director of an advertising agency, and his girlfriend,
Venetia Cuninghame, was a model—another face in the Birds of Britain book.
One day we took them up to an old hotel on the northern tip of the island, where
it was very wild and windy, and in those days undeveloped. It is the point at
which the Caribbean meets the Atlantic, so there are big seas and strong
currents. The owner had invited us to a picnic lunch. There was a huge
swimming pool, overlooking the sea and, as everywhere in Barbados, a beautiful
sandy beach. We said we’d like to be on the beach rather than by the pool, so we
went down some stone steps that led to it from the hotel garden and found a
perfect spot on which to lie and sunbathe.
The sand was silky soft but so hot in the midday sun that we couldn’t sit on it
for long. Soon we raced into the sea to cool down. George and I swam a little
further out than the others, but as we headed back toward the shore we suddenly
discovered we were making no progress. We were about sixty yards from the
beach, swimming and swimming but moving nowhere. George and I looked at
each other, and he said, very calmly, “Just keep swimming. Don’t panic.” We
could see Terry and Venetia at the water’s edge but they were blissfully unaware
of our predicament and probably wouldn’t have heard our shouts over the noise
of the waves. Every time a wave came we tried to use it to inch a little further,
but then the fierce undertow took us out to sea again. Eventually, after about half
an hour, we made it and collapsed, exhausted, onto the sand.
We were desperate for something to drink and ravenously hungry—as if by a
miracle, a waiter appeared at that precise moment with a huge jug of lemonade,
tinkling with ice, and a silver platter laden with delicious things to eat. Horror of
horrors, no sooner had he put them down on the sand beside us than a huge wave
whooshed up the beach and swallowed our lunch, tray and all. The sea was
ferocious in that northern part, which, I now know, was why the hotel had such a glorious swimming pool.
Recently I was in Barbados and went back to see the beach. Forty years on,
the hotel is in mins, the swimming pool too, but I found the stone steps to the
beach, overgrown and unused, and felt a shiver run down my spine.
micahbrubin
Thank you for sharing!
Tim
You’re welcome.
So George Harrison was there