ONE of Jamaica’s many wonders, Lovers’ Leap is located in the breadbasket parish of St. Elizabeth. This breathtaking location, where the Santa Cruz Mountains meet Jamaica’s south coast, is a steep cliff plummeting 1,700 ft to the crashing waves of the Cutlass Bay below.

Lovers’ Leap is known for its scenic backdrop of miles of Caribbean Sea, where the view stretches east, to as far as Rocky Point in Clarendon and to Treasure Beach in the west.

The tourist spot is most famous for the story behind its name, which is based on a 18th century slave romance between two slaves, Mizzy and Tunky. Legend has it that a jealous slave owner threatened their romance, so they ran away and were eventually chased to the edge of a cliff where they decided it would be better to die together than to live apart.

The two, therefore, leaped to their deaths, thus, the name Lovers’ Leap. This story also inspired the novel Lovers’ Leap by Horane Smith who had lived in the area.