Since 1995, when the Soufrière Hills volcano began erupting and eventually buried its capital, Plymouth, in pyroclastic flows, the Caribbean island of Montserrat has sought a comeback. Now it thinks it has one, and Plymouth is again part of the plan.
The public-private partnership Montserrat Development Corporation has released a master plan to build a new capital in the Little Bay area on the north end of the island, which is 27 miles southwest of Antigua. While it works to attract foreign investors to fund the hotel, waterfront and marina in the plan, the company says its earliest efforts will be visible to travelers by the time high season arrives in December.
Four bars and restaurants are set to open in a four-unit development known as Marine Village in Little Bay. Last December a ferry terminal was completed next door, from which “Round de Island Tours” depart, sailing past the former capital while circumnavigating the island in roughly two hours.
The development corporation, police and scientists recently met with island tour guides to discuss potential land tours of Plymouth, where rooftops and steeples remain above the flows of rock, possibly by February 2015.
Meanwhile, officials have been courting small cruise lines. This year for the first time, Windstar Cruises will visit Montserrat, sending its new 212-passenger yacht Star Legend to the island regularly beginning this month through March 2016.
Officials also hope to restore Air Studios, the former recording studio of the Beatles producer George Martin, who attracted marquee musicians to the island in the 1970s and ‘80s, including Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. But that project, like many others, has no timeline attached.
“Because we lost our beautiful capital, we want to take our time and do it right,” said Carol Osborne, who survived the volcano and now manages the six-room Olveston House hotel owned by Mr. Martin. “We are the way the Caribbean used to be, and the aim is to keep it like this.”
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this column on Nov. 9 about Montserrat and its recovery from a volcanic eruption that buried its capital, Plymouth, misidentified the type of volcano it was. Because it was pyroclastic, there were flows of rock, not lava. The error was repeated in the headline.