Great Thatch National Park
British Virgin Islands
ESTABLISHED.2026 AREA 282 acres
Great Thatch is an uninhabited, steep, densely wooded island less than a mile north-west of West End, Tortola. It sits in the channel facing St John, so it was on the old British–Danish border. Its habitats run in an unusually complete sequence: salt pond and mangrove at the shore, then dry forest and cactus scrub, then taller woodland on the higher ground. Kew lists the whole island as a Tropical Important Plant Area. The designation rests on two globally threatened plants and six species of high conservation importance, including the endangered Puerto Rican Bank endemic Erythrina eggersiikew.
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From the 18th to the late 19th century a community of more than 120 people lived there, enslaved and free, and many of their descendants' families are in Carrot Bay and Jost Van Dyke today. They left behind the Main House ruins, cisterns, walls and pathways, along with a surface scatter of ceramics and glass dating to roughly 1780–1870. The island also has a documented moment of resistance. On 24 November 1856, the sub-Treasurer of Tortola tried to seize a boat belonging to an inhabitant of what was then called Thatch Island, for trading without a licence. The government bought the island back in 1997, and it was declared a national park under the NPTVI in April 2026.

















