Portland – Location & Overview
Portland is the most northeasterly parish in Jamaica. Bounded on the north and northeast by the Caribbean Sea, on the west by St. Mary and on the south by St. Thomas. The parish covers 89.86km of the island’s total coastal area while its maximum width is approximately 20.8km. Portland’s coastline stretches from Hectors River in the east to Windsor Castle in the west.
GEOGRAPHY
AREA
814 sp. km (approx. 314.3 sq. miles.)
POPULATION SIZE
78,900
DENSITY
97 persons per sq. km
251 persons per sq. ml
The sometimes-daily rainfall accounts for the lush scenery along the Portland countryside.
The mountains are huge fortresses, rugged, steep, densely forested and seemingly impregnable – layers and layers of mountains seven thousand, four hundred and two feet up to the Blue Mountain Peak. The Blue Mountain Peak itself is found in both Portland and St Thomas. In contrast to the rugged mountains there is the lush plain of Long Road in east Portland. The seacoast towns of Portland are Hope Bay, Orange Bay, St. Margaret’s Bay and Buff Bay
Forest reserves are on the upper slopes of the Blue Mountain. Along the ranges of the highest elevation point in Jamaica lies 103.6km of unexplored wilderness and rich rain forests. Despite the felling of timber and clearing of the lower slopes, much of Portland’s interior remains inaccessible.