History
Coffee started to be produced at Clifton Mount Estate in the middle of the 18th century. According to the Institute of Jamaica, a land survey done in 1810 shows that Robert Hamilton was the owner of the farm. The survey map showed Clifton Mount Plantation as being divided into two parts - Top Mountain with 80 acres of coffee and 427 acres in pastures, and Bottom Mountain with 111 acres of coffee and 264 acres in pastures. The house at Clifton Mount Estate is now one of the few surviving examples of the coffee houses, which during the 19th century, were numerous in the Port Royal Mountains and in the foothills of the Blue Mountains
Marianne North, the famous English painter and author, visited Jamaica in 1872 for 5 months and spent some time at Clifton Mount. In her autobiography, “The Recollections of a happy Life”, she mentioned her visit to Clifton Lodge. “Clifton Lodge belonged to a gentleman who had lost his wife there and never wanted to see it again. He did not let it but rented it for a week at a time to different people who wanted a dose of cool air 1500 meters above the sea, beyond the lovely fern walk and in the midst of the finest and oldest coffee plantation in Jamaica”
