Hellshire Beach, Sandy beach in St. Catherine, Jamaica

Hellshire Beach is a sandy shore on the south coast of Jamaica, in Saint Catherine Parish, lined with rustic wooden fish shacks built directly on the sand. The shacks sit close together along the waterfront, each with its own grill, cooler of fresh catch, and a handful of plastic chairs and tables for diners.

Hellshire Beach was first called "Healthshire", after its reputation as a health retreat; both pronunciations are still considered correct. In the early nineteenth century, colonial records describe hundreds of runaway slaves escaping to Healthshire, where they lived for several years as a free black community before being captured by a party of Jamaican Maroons.

The name comes from "Healthshire", a health retreat in the early 19th century, later worn down to Hellshire; both pronunciations are still heard. The beach has two parts: a paid section with lifeguards, a buoyed swimming area about 200 m long, showers and tables under grapenut trees, and, further west, a free section lined with fried fish and other stalls.

The sand gets everywhere, so simple shoes or bare feet work best here. Arriving on a weekday rather than a weekend means fewer people and a more relaxed meal, since the place gets very busy on Saturdays and Sundays.

The beach's name began as "Healthshire", a health retreat in the early nineteenth century; colonial records describe hundreds of runaway slaves who reached it and lived there as a free black community for several years before a party of Jamaican Maroons captured them. Both pronunciations are still considered correct.