Forbidden Shores
Launch promo ends in 00:00:00
Get the Complete Series — $73.98 $29.99

Forbidden Shores · Four Illustrated Volumes

Mysteries of Jamaica:
The Complete Series

Beneath the beaches lies another island — Taíno caves painted by the first Jamaicans, a pirate city that slid into the sea, Maroon strongholds an empire could not take, and great houses swallowed by the bush. Four illustrated books take you there, and tell you plainly where the legend ends and the record begins.

Real Voices

“I grew up ten minutes from Seville and never knew a whole Spanish town was lying under that grass. The Lost World of Jamaica took me through Sevilla la Nueva chapter by chapter. I drove back that Sunday and saw it with new eyes.”

Desmond A. Desmond A.54, Ocho Rios, St. Ann

“Jamaica’s Forgotten Past is the one my grandchildren fight over. The Rose Hall chapter finally showed me which parts of the White Witch story are history and which were made up long after. I have told that tale wrong for fifty years!”

Marcia W. Marcia W.61, Mandeville, Manchester

“My grandfather told Nanny Town stories on the veranda. Jamaica’s Forbidden Zones ends every site with a ‘What Holds Up’ box, so you know what the records say and what people just repeat. Somebody finally did it properly.”

Clive B. Clive B.67, Port Antonio, Portland
4.9 / 5 stars · over 8,000 readers of the island’s hidden history
Get the Complete Series — $73.98 $29.99

Instant download · Yours forever

Secure checkout by GumroadVisaMastercardAmexPayPal
4Illustrated books
353Pages
14Centuries of history
$29.99For all four

I

The Island Beneath the Island

Most visitors meet Jamaica at the edge of the sea: a beach, a resort, a stretch of turquoise water under a hard blue sky. It is a beautiful introduction, and it tells you almost nothing about what happened here.

Walk a little further and the other Jamaica begins. Faces painted on limestone walls by people who arrived by canoe more than a thousand years ago. The carved stones of a Spanish town lying in the grass above St. Ann’s Bay. A harbour where streets and houses slid under the water one June morning in 1692. Mountain clearings where free communities held off the British army. Roofless fortified houses, shattered sugar wheels, and cays you are not allowed to land on.

Jamaica has plenty of genuine mysteries. It does not need invented ones.

That is the rule behind every page of this series. Tunnels under great houses, jars of Spanish gold, pyramids in the jungle, a witch in the ballroom — the stories are all here, and so is the evidence. Where legend and record part ways, the books say so plainly. The real history is almost always stranger.

The First PeoplesRedware settlers, the Taíno world, painted caves and sacred figures
Spanish JamaicaColumbus’s stranded caravels, Sevilla la Nueva and the hidden capital
The Maroon NationsNanny, Cudjoe, Nanny Town and the Cockpit Country
The Colonial UnderworldPort Royal, pirates and gallows, forts, great houses and uprisings

II

The Difference

Mysteries of JamaicaTravel guides & blogsShort videos & posts
Depth on each site353 pages across 4 booksA paragraph, if listedA minute or two
Legend separated from the record✓ On every siteRarelyRarely
Taíno, Spanish, Maroon & colonial eras together
Original illustrations & site mapsPhotos
Access status & safety notes per siteSometimes
Timeline, glossary & further reading
Yours to keep and read offlinePrint only

III

What’s Inside

The Hidden Jamaica
Volume I · 43 pages · 16 sites

The Hidden Jamaica

Lost Ruins, Ancient Structures, Forbidden Places, and Forgotten History Beneath the Island

A guided descent through fourteen centuries in sixteen short chapters, each one readable in a single sitting. It moves from Taíno villages to the ruins of the early twentieth century, and every chapter ends with a Field Notes box: where the site is, and what to know before you try to see it. A numbered map puts every site on the island.

  • Part One · The First Jamaicans
  • Xaymaca
  • The Painted Cave
  • The Gods in the Dark
  • Part Two · The Spanish Century
  • Marooned
  • Sevilla la Nueva
  • The Capital Beneath the Capital
  • Part Three · The Drowned and the Shaken
  • Port Royal
  • What the Earth Left Standing
  • The Stones at Hunt’s Bay
  • Part Four · Castles and Dark Houses
  • Colbeck Castle
  • The Mad Master
  • Rose Hall
  • Folly
  • Part Five · Forbidden Places
  • Nanny Town
  • The Land of Look Behind
  • Fire in the Cane
  • Plus
  • Map of the Sites · Timeline · Visiting Responsibly · Glossary · Further Reading
Get The Hidden Jamaica — $9.99 Instant download · or take all four for $29.99
Jamaica's Forbidden Zones
Volume II · 38 pages · 17 sites

Jamaica’s Forbidden Zones

Exploring Buried History, Mysterious Ruins, Hidden Places, and Ancient Secrets

A field guide beyond the tourist map. “Forbidden” means different things here — legally protected, closed for safety, on private land, or simply too remote for most people to reach — and every entry opens with a status line telling you which. Every entry closes with a What Holds Up box: what the records confirm, what is disputed, and what is only legend.

  • Part One · The Drowned and the Buried
  • Port Royal
  • Gallows Point and Rackham’s Cay
  • Sevilla la Nueva
  • Part Two · Caves of the First People
  • White Marl
  • Mountain River Cave
  • Two Sisters Cave
  • Green Grotto Caves
  • Part Three · The Maroon Strongholds
  • Nanny Town
  • Cockpit Country
  • Accompong
  • Part Four · Great Houses and Forts
  • Colbeck Castle
  • Stewart Castle
  • Rose Hall
  • Fort Haldane
  • Part Five · The Restricted Shores
  • The Goat Islands
  • The Pedro Cays
  • Morant Point
  • Plus
  • Legends of What Lies Beneath · The Lost Civilisation Question · Visiting With Respect · Glossary
Get Jamaica’s Forbidden Zones — $9.99 Instant download · or take all four for $29.99
The Lost World of Jamaica
Volume III · 135 pages · 35 chapters

The Lost World of Jamaica

Ancient Structures, Forgotten Civilizations, and Mysteries Hidden Across the Island

The deep history, told in full. From an island rising out of the sea to the Redware people, the Taíno, the Spanish, the Maroon nations and the colonial underworld — then into the hidden landscapes of caves, blue holes and morasses. It closes with the “Shouldn’t Exist” Files, which put the island’s most viral claims to the test.

  • Part One · Before History
  • An Island Rising from the Sea
  • The First Arrivals: The Redware People
  • The Taíno World
  • Stone, Wood, and Spirit
  • Sites of the First Peoples
  • The Great Dying
  • Part Two · Spanish Jamaica
  • Columbus’s Island
  • Sevilla la Nueva: The First Town
  • Villa de la Vega: The Hidden Capital
  • The Last Spanish Stand
  • Part Three · The Maroon Nations
  • Origins of the Maroons
  • Nanny and the Windward Maroons
  • Cudjoe and the Leeward Maroons
  • The Maroon Landscape
  • Part Four · The Colonial Underworld
  • Port Royal: The Rise
  • Port Royal: The Drowning
  • Pirates, Gallows, and the Cays
  • Forts of the Island
  • Great Houses and Fortified Houses
  • The Industrial Ruins of Sugar
  • The Uprisings
  • Forgotten Communities
  • Part Five · Hidden Landscapes
  • The Cave Country
  • Springs, Blue Holes, and Healing Waters
  • The Great Morasses
  • Restricted Shores and Offshore Cays
  • Lost Creatures of the Island
  • Part Six · The “Shouldn’t Exist” Files
  • Pyramids in the Jungle?
  • Tunnels Beneath the Island
  • Spanish Jars and Duppy Gold
  • Sunken Lands and Underwater Cities
  • Atlantis, Giants, and Lost Races
  • The Spirit World: Jamaican Folklore
  • How the Past Is Recovered
  • Twelve Questions Still Unanswered
  • Plus
  • Timeline · Gazetteer of Sites · Where to See the Past · Glossary · Sources
Get The Lost World of Jamaica — $27 Instant download · or take all four for $29.99
Jamaica's Forgotten Past
Volume IV · 137 pages · 23 sites

Jamaica’s Forgotten Past

Ruins, Lost Settlements, Hidden Tunnels, and Unexplained Discoveries Left Behind by History

An illustrated history in twenty-three sites, each opening with an At a Glance panel — where, period, what survives, and access — then the full story. It ends with suggested routes, a site finder and the questions readers ask most, so you can plan your own journey into the island’s past.

  • Part One · Lost Settlements
  • Xaymaca
  • The Painted Cave
  • The Gods in the Dark
  • Sevilla la Nueva
  • The Vanished Towns
  • Nanny Town
  • The Land of Look Behind
  • Part Two · Ruins
  • The Capital Beneath the Capital
  • Port Royal
  • What the Earth Left Standing
  • The Stones at Hunt’s Bay
  • Stewart Castle
  • Colbeck Castle
  • The Mad Master
  • Folly
  • Wheels, Aqueducts, and Chimneys
  • Part Three · Hidden Tunnels
  • Tunnels of Legend
  • Powder and Stone
  • Under the Limestone
  • Part Four · Unexplained Discoveries
  • The Lost Caravels
  • Rose Hall
  • Duppy Gold
  • The Villages No Map Recorded
  • Plus
  • Suggested Routes · Site Finder · Questions Readers Ask · Timeline · Glossary
Get Jamaica’s Forgotten Past — $27 Instant download · or take all four for $29.99

IV

About Forbidden Shores

Forbidden Shores makes illustrated books about the parts of Jamaica that never make the brochure. Not because they are secret — very little here is secret from Jamaicans themselves — but because they are overgrown, underfunded, overshadowed by beach tourism, or simply left out of the story most people are told.

The books are written for curious readers, travellers, and Jamaicans at home and abroad who suspect the island’s story runs deeper than the postcards allow. You need no background in history or archaeology. You only need an interest in what people left behind, and a willingness to separate a good story from a true one.

Many of these places are protected by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, and several are sacred to living communities — the Maroons, the island’s Jewish congregation, and the descendants of the enslaved. The books treat them that way, and ask readers to do the same.

V

Questions

Are the legends in these books true?

Some are, some are not, and the books tell you which. Tunnels under great houses, Spanish jars of gold, the White Witch of Rose Hall, pyramids in the interior — each story is told the way it is told on the island, then set beside what the documents and the digs actually show. Legends are always labelled as legends. What you choose to believe is up to you.

There’s so much about Jamaica online for free. Why buy these?

Online you get fragments: a clip about Port Royal, a post about Rose Hall, a photo of a “pyramid” hill with no explanation. This series puts fourteen centuries in order, links the sites to one another, and checks every claim against the record — with original illustrations, maps, timelines and access notes you can keep and come back to.

Why is the whole series only $29.99?

Bought one by one, the four books come to $73.98. The launch price for the complete series is $29.99 — less than the two large volumes cost on their own — because we would rather you read all four. The countdown at the top shows when the launch promo ends.

What format are they, and how do I get them?

All four are illustrated PDFs. Checkout is handled securely by Gumroad, and your download link arrives instantly on the screen and by email. Read them on your phone, tablet or computer, or print them — they are yours to keep.

Can I buy just one book?

Yes. The Hidden Jamaica and Jamaica’s Forbidden Zones are $9.99 each; The Lost World of Jamaica and Jamaica’s Forgotten Past are $27 each. Every book has its own button above. The complete series is the better value if you want more than one.

Do the books overlap?

The most important places — Port Royal, Rose Hall, Nanny Town, Sevilla la Nueva — appear in more than one volume, but each book comes at them differently. The Hidden Jamaica is a short illustrated journey; Forbidden Zones is a field guide built around access and evidence; The Lost World of Jamaica is the full deep history; Jamaica’s Forgotten Past goes site by site with the most illustrations, plus routes for planning a visit.

Can I use them to plan a visit?

Yes — the books include maps, access notes and suggested routes. But conditions change, especially since Hurricane Melissa in October 2025, and some sites are protected, private or dangerous. Always confirm access locally, get permission before entering protected or private land, and use qualified local guides.

Step Off the Tourist Map

Four illustrated books. 353 pages. Taíno caves, a drowned pirate city, Maroon strongholds and the ruins the island has been hiding for centuries.

Choose Your Volume

Instant download · Yours forever