Carriacou Island - City of Grenada

Carriacou is the largest of the Grenadines in Grenada territory. It is seven miles long and three miles wide at the broadest point. The island is irregular in shape with a ridge running the length of it averaging 750 feet in height with the highest point, a hill at the northern end called High North, reaching 850 feet above sea level.

In the past century Carriacou produced limes as the principal crop. Today, sugar is no longer grown and the lime industry is intermittent. Throughout the island one finds ruins of old houses and windmill towers which were used in grinding cane. Some of these features will be protected as cultural landmarks.

By contrast the beaches at Grand Anse on Hillsborough Bay are of white coral sands. While the limited black sand beaches support an Avicennia plant growth, those white beaches on the western side of the island are dominated by Hippomane, Coccoloba uvifera and Erithallis fruticosa. Some specimens of Caesalpinia bonduc scramble over the shrubs. Crotalaria verrucosa is a conspicuous blue-flowered herb in this beach association.

The climate of the Grenadines is a relatively uniform one characterized by a northeast breeze which prevails most of the year. The temperature averages about 80 degrees F. in the dry season and 74 degrees F. in the rainy season. Significantly less rain falls on the smaller Islands; from 50-70 inches per year. These drier conditions predominate because of their inability to cause condensation due to a lack of a high cordilliera.

The Islands had a deep fertile soil at the time they were settled, which was utilized first primarily for cotton, a short time for sugar cane and thereafter for cotton. Sugar cane was phased out with the abolition of slavery and with the decline of the world price of sugar.