Message from the Executive Director

As usual, February was a very busy month - the Plant & Bake Sale and the Auction & Jumble Sale were both very well attended and successful. We couldn’t do it without our amazing volunteers who put in many, many hours to make the events happen – thank you all! We are also very grateful to everyone who generously donated plants, baked goods and auction & jumble items, as well as the hundreds who supported with their purchases.

Our team of staff and volunteers ready to sell plants!

Left to right: Sharon Vesey, Sarah Vallis, Jennifer Davidson, Dorte Horsfield, Myles Darrell, Mark Orchard, Hannah Horsfield, Diana Antonition and Ronald Burchall

A few of our Auction & Jumble Volunteers: James Rylands, Eldon Trimingham, Patsy Cook, Sue Hillen, Heather Gillis and Maria McLeod

Next up is the Palm Sunday Walk in Sandys on 29 March. I hope you will join us to explore some of the natural and cultural heritage sites of Somerset and Dockyard. Register for the walk online!

Karen Border

Executive Director

BNT Awards - Call for Nominations

BNT’s Annual Awards celebrate individuals, schools, groups and organisations who have demonstrated their love for Bermuda’s natural and cultural heritage in some significant way. It could be for a recent project such as the sensitive renovation of an historic property or a research study, or it could be for showing a long-term commitment to our island’s heritage. The deadline for nominations is Friday 10 April.

Click here to download the Annual Awards nomination form.

Please let us know who you think deserves an award!

Natural Heritage Updates

Myles Darrell, Head of Natural Heritage

Heritage at Risk: When Neglect Costs Us More Than We Realise

An old postcard of Cathedral Rock

Bermuda’s heritage is not limited to buildings, forts and museums. Our natural heritage—the dramatic rock formations, coastal features, endemic species and wild places that define our landscape—is just as important, and just as vulnerable.

One striking example is Cathedral Rock in Ely’s Harbour. Once a regular photo stop for visitors and locals alike, this iconic natural feature has slowly slipped out of sight and mind. Today, it is overwhelmed by invasive casuarina trees and no longer part of the shared experience that once connected people to Bermuda’s natural beauty.

This matters—not only environmentally, but economically and culturally. Caring for our natural heritage is partly about preserving Bermuda’s tourism product. Visitors are seeking unique landscapes, stories and experiences that exist nowhere else on Earth. When we allow these features to degrade through neglect, we diminish what makes Bermuda special.

There is a critical difference between neglecting infrastructure and neglecting natural features. Buildings can be repaired; natural heritage often cannot. Once a site is lost to invasive species, erosion or development pressure, restoration may be impossible.

Neglect is insidious. Over time, we forget what we’ve lost, and future generations never get the chance to know it at all. Protecting natural sites like Cathedral Rock is not about nostalgia. It is about recognising that Bermuda’s unique landscape is a heritage asset. If we fail to care for it, we risk losing far more than scenic views—we risk losing part of our identity.

The question then arises - whose responsibility is it to care for the site? Most of the formation is situated on the “King’s Bottom”, but land access seems to be over private property. Should the government step in? Perhaps the feature should be ‘listed’ for preservation, although that would not necessarily ensure that it is conserved. Maybe this is an opportunity for community action – does anyone want to put together a team of volunteers to tackle the removal of the invasive casuarinas from this once-treasured natural feature?

Cathedral Rock today, covered with invasive casuarinas.

Palm Sunday Walk

Volunteers needed!

We’re looking for volunteers to help us on Sunday, 29 March at the Palm Sunday Walk to assist with making the day safe, smooth, and enjoyable for everyone.

🕐𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 1:00 PM – 4:30 PM

👟 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞: Help guide participants, keep walkers on course, and support event safety

🎓 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 needing volunteer hours—or anyone happy to lend a hand!.

Contact our Head of Conservation, Myles Darrell myles.darrell@bnt.bm

Cultural Heritage Updates

Dr Charlotte Andrews, Head of Cultural Heritage

Verdmont Cottage Visits

During Black History Month, BNT hosted on-site visits and roundtable discussions at Verdmont, an African Diaspora Heritage Trail site, focusing on the property’s cottage. Until recently it was a residential rental, but moving forward it will become part of the museum. The structure — believed to have been built upon earlier foundations dating to Verdmont’s earliest period of occupation in the early 1700s — was the detached kitchen for the main house and is understood to have served as the primary workspace, and likely living space, for families and individuals enslaved there until Emancipation in 1834.

Our RISE (Re-imagining Sites of Enslavement) Advisors, Museums & Collections Committee members, museums team, and other key stakeholders toured the building and reviewed archaeological findings, conservation reports, and emerging research. Discussions centred on how to honour the lives and labour of those whose stories have historically been overlooked, while considering sensitive and sustainable future uses that support interpretation and enhance the overall visitor experience at Verdmont

Some members of the focus groups in front of Verdmont & Verdmont Cottage

Prospect Hill Memorials Conserved

More than 25 historic memorials at Prospect Hill Garrison Cemetery have recently been stabilised and restored, improving safety and preserving fragile inscriptions.

Over time, exposure to salt-laden air, cycles of heavy rainfall and drying, biological growth, gradual ground settlement, and even the corrosion of internal iron fixings had caused many limestone and marble memorials to crack, lean, or collapse. Specialist contractor Island Memorials undertook structural repairs using conservation-grade materials, while Saunders Maintenance Ltd. completed masonry works including re-setting memorials and stabilising plinths.

These carefully managed interventions protect the personal histories and craftsmanship embodied in the cemetery’s monuments, help ensure the site remains dignified and secure, and were made possible through the generous support of the Chubb Charitable Foundation.

Before conservation of memorials.

After conservation of memorials.

Heritage Education Updates

Anna Stevenson, Heritage Education Manager

It has been a wonderful month for heritage education as we launched our brand-new Roots and Rhythms camp. Children were treated with a visit from the Gombeys who demonstrated their dancing and drumming and taught the children about the heritage of the troupes. They practiced weaving with palms with Ronnie Chameau, visited Spittal Pond and Cooper’s Island and made beautiful ‘heritage hangers’, featuring different images from Bermuda’s culture. We finished the week with a guided visit around the Fraggle Rock exhibition at the National Gallery.

In Black History month, we were pleased to work with 228 MSA students delivering learning on the development of slavery in Bermuda. We also hosted all students from St George’s Prep outside Tucker House to learn about the life and work of Joseph Hayne Rainey.