Great Thatch ruin is a

ruin Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

Great Thatch Great Thatch is an uninhabited island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. It is one of the westernmost islands in the territory. It is believed to take its name from the famous pirate, Edward Teach (better known as "Blackbeard"), al ...

island in the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Brit ...

. The ruin probably dates from the

sugar plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

era, but may be earlier. It was presumed abandoned during the economic collapse of the British Virgin Islands during the mid-19th century, when many plantations were abandoned. The ruin covers a significant estate, and is an indicator of some wealth. It is not clear when the ruin was finally fully abandoned, although

bottle A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal stopp ...

s found on the site from the Portobello bottle company in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, suggest that it may have been as late as 1907. The

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

on the site does not exhibit the same level of deterioration as similar parts of ruins in the Territory which are known to have been abandoned during the 1850s.

Images

Image:Great Thatch ruin - 1.jpg Image:Great Thatch ruin - 2.jpg Image:Great Thatch ruin - 3.jpg Image:Great Thatch ruin - 4.jpg Image:Great Thatch ruin - 5.jpg Image:Great Thatch ruin - 6.jpg

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Thatch Ruin Ruins in the British Virgin Islands History of the British Virgin Islands