Hellshire Beach

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Hellshire Beach, Jamaica, is located near Portmore, and famed for its fried fish and safe swimming.

The paying section of Hellshire Beach looking east towards the Blue Mountains
The paying section of Hellshire Beach looking east towards the Blue Mountains

Hellshire Beach has near white sands with a very small trace of black sand.  Exposed when there is a sea running to the south, the waters close to shore are quite cloudy due to the stirred up sand.

It is a popular public beach conveniently located for the residents of Portmore and also a very popular weekend destination for the people of Kingston.

There is a section with life guards and a buoyed off swimming area approximately 200m long. It has changing/showering facilities which are kept fairly clean.  This has a number of tables and benches in the shade of grapenut trees and there is a fish restaurant and bar.

Further to the west of the section described above there is a free entry to the beach and here there are a large number of fried fish and other stalls.

Once called Healthshire due to its reputation as a health retreat it's name has evolved into Hellshire however both pronunciations are technically correct.