Murphy Great House Ruins

Murphy Great House Ruins are the remains of James Murphy’s hilltop house above Annaberg. You reach it on foot by the Leinster Bay and Johnny Horn trails; the reward is a weathered stone arch and a broad view over Waterlemon Cay. Make time if you like history and are happy to climb; this is not a quick roadside stop.

Start at the small parking area below Annaberg and follow the Leinster Bay shore to Waterlemon Bay. It’s about a mile along the shoreline before Johnny Horn Trail climbs past a separate guardhouse ruin; take the signed left spur for the house. Local estimates run about 30 to 45 minutes each way, depending on pace and stops. The shoreline is mostly level but rocky in places; the final climb is steep, rocky and sunny. Start early or leave time to rest, and carry water for the exposed ridge. A picnic table is reported at the ruins, so bring a snack. Give yourself two hours or more for the walk and a proper stop.

The surviving arch and broken walls sit high above the bay. From here you can see Annaberg, Leinster Bay, Waterlemon Bay and Waterlemon Cay below, with Tortola across the channel. On a clear day, look for Great Thatch, St. Thomas and Jost Van Dyke farther out along Sir Francis Drake Channel. For a photo, put a section of stonework in the foreground with Waterlemon Cay and the bay beyond; it gives the blue water a sense of place.

James Murphy was an Irish shipowner, a St. Thomas merchant and a slave trader. He bought Waterlemon Bay in 1796 and renamed it Leinster Bay. He went on to acquire Annaberg, Mary Point and part of Betty’s Hope, and began a sugar factory at Annaberg. By 1807, his holdings covered 1,245 acres, including 494 acres planted in sugar cane. These stones sit within the much larger story of St. John’s plantation estates.

The separate ruin on the climb is identified as a guardhouse. Its position gave an overseer a view of Fungi Passage and the Narrows, the channels between St. John and nearby islands. It’s easy to pass it as another patch of old stone, but the location shows how closely these estates watched the shoreline.