Hartford Cave

Lucayan Cave

Useful Information

Location:	On the northern coast of Rum Cay Island, east of Pee Wee Point. (23.689245, -74.915896)
Open:	no restrictions. [2026]
Fee:	free. [2026]
Classification:	Sea Cave
Light:	n/a
Dimension:	L=6.1m
Guided tours:	Local guides are advisable.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:	J. C. Maynard (1889): Some inscriptions found in Hartford Cave, Rum Key, Bahamas, Contributions to science, Vol. I(No. I), pp. 167-171. Dyler Durn (2016): Hartford Cave A Photo Tour, ebook. online
Address:	Administrator’s Office, Rum Cay District Council, King Street, Port Nelson, RC, Tel: 242-331-2854. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1888	visited by naturalist and ornithologist Charles J. Maynard (*1845–✝1929).
1888	visited by botanical illustrator and writer Lady Edith Blake (1845-✝1928), wife of Sir Henry Arthur Blake*, former governor of the Bahamas islands.
1980-1989	explored by John H. Winter.
1988	explored by Antonio Núñez Jiménez.

Description

Hartford Cave is a protected historical site of The Bahamas. Between 600-1500 AD this cave was used by the ingenious Lucayan-Arawak Indians. It was rediscovered by Rum Cay residents, who collected bat guano as fertilizer. Sometimes they found archaeological remains like clay plates, cups, and bowls while digging.

The walls of the cave are decorated with petroglyphs. This cave is said to contain the largest number of such petroglyphs within The Bahamas. The most famous petroglyph was showing a canoe paddle, but it cannot be seen in the cave any more. It was extracted and is now in the New World Museum on San Salvador. This is a pretty mysterious story as it is unknown who did this, for what reason, and why he filled the hole with a concrete "replica".

The cave is also called Lucayan Cave, that’s the name which is used by Google Maps. It is derived from the Lucayan People, the natives of the Bahama Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands before the European colonisation. They were the first Indigenous Americans encountered by Christopher Columbus in October 1492. The Spanish kidnapped and enslaved Lucayans which culminated in the complete eradication by 1520. The name is an Anglicization of the Spanish Lucayos, which is a hispanicization of Lukku-Cairi, which the people used for themselves. It means "people of the islands" in their languange.

The cave is a sea cave at the beach and easily reached over the sand. It is actually just a single chamber, little more than an overhanging rock. The cave is freely accessible, but as there is no road across the island, it is either a 7 km hike from Port Nelson through bushland, or a boat ride around the island. Being difficult to access on an island which lacks tourism is probably the best protection for the engravings.