Hamilton Nature and Heritage: Spittal Pond Birds, Limestone Architecture, the Cahow Seabird Recovery, Nonsuch Island Ecological Restoration, Swizzle Inn Heritage Bar, and the Royal Bermuda Regiment Tattoo
The Hamilton nature and heritage circuit covers the Spittal Pond Atlantic flyway bird observation, the mandated white stepped-roof limestone architecture, the extraordinary cahow seabird recovery from 18 to 130 nesting pairs, the Nonsuch Island pre-European ecological restoration, the 1932 Swizzle Inn heritage pub, and the Royal Bermuda Regiment conscript military tattoo.
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Spittal Pond: The Bird and Wildlife Reserve
Spittal Pond Nature Reserve in Smith's Parish, the largest wildlife sanctuary in Bermuda at 60 acres with the freshwater and brackish ponds, the tidal flats, and the limestone cliff coast providing the habitat for more than 50 species of migratory birds on the Atlantic flyway, is the primary nature observation destination in Bermuda for the birder who visits during the spring and fall migration seasons when the warblers, the plovers, and the raptors concentrate at the pond edge.
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Bermuda Architecture: The Limestone Tradition
The Bermuda limestone house, with the white-painted stepped roof designed to collect rainwater as the primary water supply before the municipal desalination system, the pastel-colored exterior walls, and the cedar shutters and doorframes, is the most architecturally coherent vernacular building tradition of any Atlantic island and the primary reason that the Bermuda interior landscape, even when fully built-up in the residential areas, retains a visual harmony rare in the Caribbean. The white stepped roof is mandated by building code.
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The Cahow: The Rarest Seabird Recovery
The cahow, the Bermuda petrel Pterodroma cahow, extinct for 330 years according to colonial accounts and then rediscovered nesting on Nonsuch Island by naturalist Robert Cushman Murphy in 1951, has increased from the 18 nesting pairs found in 1951 to more than 130 nesting pairs in 2020 under the management of the Bermuda government Conservation Services. The cahow recovery, the most successful seabird restoration program in the North Atlantic, is managed from Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve, accessible by guided conservation tour from the Bermuda Department of the Environment.
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Rum Swizzle Inn: The Heritage Bar
The Swizzle Inn in Bailey's Bay near the Crystal Cave, established in 1932 and claiming the title of Bermuda's oldest pub, is the primary heritage bar of the island and the establishment most associated with the Bermuda Rum Swizzle, the traditional punch of the island made with the Gosling's rum, the Bermuda Gold rum, the fruit juices, and the Falernum that predates the Dark and Stormy as the Bermuda cocktail tradition. The bar walls are covered with the business cards and the T-shirts of the visiting sailors from the Newport Bermuda Race.
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Nonsuch Island: The Living Museum
Nonsuch Island in Castle Harbour, the 15-acre restored nature reserve that has been returned to the pre-European ecological state through the removal of invasive species and the replanting of the endemic Bermuda cedar and Bermuda palmetto, is the most complete ecological restoration project in the Atlantic island chain and the home of the cahow nesting colony. The guided tours from the Bermuda Department of the Environment provide the most meaningful nature conservation experience available in Bermuda.
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The Bermuda Regiment: The Only Conscripted Military
The Royal Bermuda Regiment, the only conscripted military force in any British Overseas Territory, recruits its soldiers by ballot from the eligible Bermuda male population for a 3-year service period that includes the basic training, the ceremonial duties, and the emergency response capability. The regiment's annual military tattoo, performed at the National Stadium, is one of the most elaborate ceremonial military events in any British territory and a significant cultural event in the Bermuda calendar.