tryall club

THE TRYALL CLUB itants of much of the Caribbean before the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th century. Part of Tryall, mainly Barnes Hill, was an Arawak burial ground.We can actually trace the name Tryall to about 1680, as there are documents that exist, showing how many livestock were kept here and how many people were work- ing on the estate. “In fact, it does go back a little further than that, because when Oliver Cromwell seized Jamaica from the Spanish, he built a series of forts along the north coast of Jamaica, so as to repel the French and Spanish navies that kept trying to reclaim the island. The remains of the fort at Tryall are still standing, down by Flint River, which flows through the property. “Over time, it existed, not so much as a plan- tation but as a mixed-use pen. So, it would have been livestock - primarily cattle, pigs, goats. But there was also some smaller scale cultivation of sugar. Most of our land is very hilly, so that’s not a perfect topography for sugar growing. But, it was very successful for pimento and coconut. And still, today, you’ll find hundreds of pimento trees scattered about the property. “It stayed pretty much that way until after the Second World War. At that time, the prop- erty was owned by William and Ida DeLisser. The DeLissers came to Jamaica in the 17th century and have remained here ever since then. In 1957, there was a group of business- men staying at Round Hill, which is just down the road. They’d been over to Tryall to have afternoon tea at the Great House, and they decided to make an offer to buy the land, so as to create a private club. And that is really how Tryall began; the first villa was Little Hill, and that was completed in 1959.” BVM: So, who owns the Club, today? Barber: “The Club is owned by the 89 pro- prietary members. Those are the members who have invested by either buying a villa, or buying a lot with plans of building a villa. They are the voting membership and, collec- tively, they own the club. There are other tiers of membership, such as overseas member, golf member, non-resident member - and that entitles people access to the Club and a num- ber of other privileges. “The owners are multi-national; it’s mainly America, Canada, England, Switzerland, Italy,