Eat Out Bermuda - Spring/Summer 2017

Named after William Shakespeare’s patron Henry

Wriothesley, the Earl of Southampton, Southampton is a magnet for visitors because Bermuda’s most photographed beach is in this parish. Horseshoe Bay is famous for its expanse of creamy sand infused with the pink of miniscule shards of tiny single-celled animals called foraminifera or red foram. Clusters of tiny half shells can be seen at the tidemark, some of them as delicate and perfectly shaped as a newborn baby’s fingernails. Horseshoe, whose curving bay really does resemble a horseshoe, extends for almost a quarter of a mile and boasts dramatic limestone cliffs, home to longtail birds that nest there year after year. Birdwatchers can enjoy watching them swirl in an aerial courtship dance. Strong swimmers can swim to the reef for excellent snorkeling— parrot fish are particularly plentiful here. On the western end of Horseshoe Bay is Port Royal Cove, affectionately known as the Baby Beach because its soft sand and shallow sea are ideal for toddlers. At low tide, on the western end, other smaller beaches can be reached by foot.

St. Anne’s Church, across South Road and after which Church Bay
is named, is a charming example of Bermudian ecclesiastical
architecture. But it is also the setting of a favourite local tale.

Wrecking, or luring passing ships onto the reefs in order
to loot them, was a profitable, if unsavoury, activity during
the eighteenth century. The tale is told of a rector preaching
at St. Anne’s Church in Southampton Parish
on a stormy Sunday. A man
entered the church and started
to whisper to some members of
the congregation who then started
to reach for their hats.

The rector asked, “John Smith, what
are you saying to these people?” Smith replied,
“Parson, there’s a ship on the south-west breakers.”
Whereupon the rector replied, “The congregation
will remain seated until I take off my surplice, and
then, boys, we’ll all start fair.”

• Gibb’s Hill Lighthouse, Bermuda’s first
lighthouse (built in 1846), offers a panoramic
view of the South Shore, the Great Sound,
and the City of Hamilton.
• Two of Bermuda’s golf courses are in
Southampton: the Port Royal 18-hole course
and the 9-hole course at the Fairmont
Southampton Resort.
• Church Bay, west of Horseshoe Bay,
is excellent for snorkelling.