Oistins (Pronounced /'ȯis-tins/ --

UN/LOCODE UN/LOCODE, the United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations, is a geographic coding scheme developed and maintained by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). UN/LOCODE assigns codes to locations used in trade and transpo ...

: BB OST) is a coastal area located in the country of

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

. It is situated centrally along the coastline of the parish of Christ Church, and is the parish capital. The area includes a fishing village as well as a tourist area with a variety of bars, rum shops, and shopping arcades.

Etymology

It has been thought that the name "Oistins" is a corruption of "Austin's". Austin was an early landowner in this area, described by Richard Ligon, one of the first historians of Barbados, as "a wild, mad, drunken fellow whose lewd and extravagant carriage made him infamous in the island". The name Oistin is known from the annals of Irish and Highlands of Scotland history. It is probably a Gaelification of the Norse name

Thorstein Thorsten (Thorstein, Torstein, Torsten) is a Scandinavian given name. The Old Norse name was ''Þórsteinn''. It is a compound of the theonym ''Þór'' (''Thor'') and ''steinn'' "stone", which became ''Thor'' and ''sten'' in Old Danish and Old Swe ...

. The name Oistin is still used in Ireland today.

History

In a historical context, Oistins was known for being the location of the ''Treaty of Oistins'' Barbados charter, thought to have been signed at the site of the Mermaid's Inn, on 17 January 1652. The treaty was to bring a formal end to fighting between colonial settlers of Barbados and the English Commonwealth over Barbados's right to trade with Spanish controlled Netherlands among other demands. Afterwards Oistins became the location of the Anglican parish church of Christ Church, the former Christ Church district hospital, and the former Barbados Coast Guard submarine station. In close proximity, many workers of

Gerald Bull Gerald Vincent Bull (March 9, 1928 – March 22, 1990) was a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery. He moved from project to project in his quest to economically launch a satellite using a space gun, huge artillery piece, to which ...

Project HARP Project HARP, for high altitude research project, was a joint venture of the United States Department of Defense and Canada's Department of National Defence created with the goal of studying ballistics of re-entry vehicles and collecting uppe ...

lived around Oistins and the nearby airport.

Tourism

A tradition has developed towards the end of the 20th century for tourists in Oistins to join with locals at the Friday night (and slightly quieter Saturday night) Fish Fry and "lime" (social gathering), which sees many food and drink stalls selling fried fish meals and local craft, all to the accompaniment of loud music, while older inhabitants practise more traditional 'old time' dancing. The area is fairly close to many of the south coast hotels in Barbados and has several beaches, for example

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

Plane spotting

The beach at Oistins is situated on the usual flight path of many aircraft landing at the

Grantley Adams International Airport Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) is an international airport at Seawell, Christ Church, Barbados, Christ Church, Barbados, serving as the country's only port of entry by air. The airport is the only designated port of entry for ...

and is therefore a popular

aircraft spotting Aircraft spotting or planespotting is a hobby consisting of observing and tracking aircraft, which is usually accomplished by photography or videography. Besides monitoring aircraft, planespotters also record information regarding airports, air ...

location. The area also acts as a small port with offshore landing for ships delivering fossils fuels to the island.

Automated Manifest System Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

Seaport Code A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...

: 27210.

References

External links

Oistins in line for facelift
March 7, 2006 - Populated places in Barbados Christ Church, Barbados {{Barbados-geo-stub