Luxury Hotels Atlas / The Maison / Island Outpost
Island Outpost hotels
Jamaican retreats hold music and literary history, from a Bond writer’s villa to mountain cottages.
Island Outpost is Chris Blackwell's collection of Jamaican hotels. He started the hotel company in the early 1990s, after Island Records. Strawberry Hill, in the Blue Mountains, is the house where Bob Marley convalesced in 1976. GoldenEye, at Oracabessa, is Ian Fleming's house, where the Bond books were written. The Caves is at Negril.
3 Island Outpost hotels in 1 country on the Luxury Hotels Atlas, each placed on the six LHA Tiers.
- Founded by Chris Blackwell
- Worldwide: The atlas files three Jamaican houses: Strawberry Hill, GoldenEye, and The Caves. The founder page also names earlier hotels, including the Marlin in Miami and Pink Sands and Compass Point in the Bahamas, that are not in this atlas set.
- On the atlas: 2 High Luxury, 1 Core Luxury
History
Island Outpost is Chris Blackwell's collection of Jamaican hotels. He started the hotel company in the early 1990s, after Island Records. Strawberry Hill, in the Blue Mountains, is the house where Bob Marley convalesced in 1976. GoldenEye, at Oracabessa, is Ian Fleming's house, where the Bond books were written. The Caves is at Negril.
Timeline
- 1989 — PolyGram buys Island Records. Blackwell stays on to supervise Island companies, and separately starts the hotel work.
- 1991 — The founder page dates the debut of the Marlin Hotel in Miami Beach to November 1991.
- 1992 — The founder page dates Strawberry Hill in Jamaica to 1992. The atlas date on the house is 1994.
- 1994 — The Caves, at Negril, is dated 1994 in the atlas, 12 rooms.
- 2010 — GoldenEye, which Blackwell had bought in 1977, opens to the public as a hotel, according to a published account of the resort. The atlas dates the property to 1946, Fleming's era, and counts 45 rooms.
The houses to know
- The Caves, Negril, Jamaica — Rastafarian artist couple Bertram and Greer-Ann Saulter carved this adults-only Negril West End retreat into limestone cliffs, designing the cottages and interiors themselves in partnership with Chris Blackwell's Island Outpost.
- GoldenEye, Oracabessa Bay, Jamaica — GoldenEye has anchored Jamaica's Oracabessa Bay since 1946 and now operates as part of Chris Blackwell's Island Outpost collection, recognized by MICHELIN with a Key in 2025.
- Strawberry Hill, Blue Mountains, Jamaica — High in Jamaica's Blue Mountains, this plantation land has grown coffee, bananas, and mangoes since the 1700s and was named after Horace Walpole's English estate.
Newest openings
- None of the open houses filed in the atlas carry a 2024 or later date.
Opening next
- No named unopened hotel was verified.
Every Island Outpost hotel on the atlas
Jamaica
- GoldenEye — Oracabessa Bay · High Luxury
- The Caves — Negril · High Luxury
- Strawberry Hill — Blue Mountains · Core Luxury
Open The Maison in the atlas for Island Outpost's full dossier, with prices and maps.