Rose Hall Great House In Jamaica’s Montego Bay
Don Ramey Logan/Wikimedia CommonsRose Hall Great House is now a museum, bar, and restaurant.
From first glance, Rose Hall Great House, overlooking the turquoise coast of Montego Bay, is a stunning Georgian-style mansion. But it has a shockingly dark history.
Constructed in the 1770s by English planter John Palmer, the mansion features carved mahogany floors, silk-printed wallpaper, chandelier-lit rooms, and a massive terrace. It fell into ruin by the 1960s before it was restored as a museum and guest experience that allows visitors to bear witness to its impressive architecture — and learn about the legend of the “White Witch of Rose Hall.”
According to lore, the White Witch is the spirit of Annie Palmer, a British orphan who was raised in Haiti by a nanny versed in voodoo. She eventually moved to Jamaica and married John Palmer around 1820, but their marriage was far from happy. Annie was said to be sadistic and cruel. Legend says she murdered Palmer — and then two subsequent husbands — and kept numerous enslaved men as her lovers.
Eventually, Annie was slain by an enslaved man named Takoo using dark magic and physical force.
Urban Walnut/Wikimedia CommonsThe purported tomb of Annie Palmer.
The issue with this story, however, is that there is no real historical foundation for the tale. Many credit the widespread adoption of the story to Jamaican author Herbert G. de Lisser and his 1929 novel The White Witch of Rosehall, but this was nothing more than a sensational work of fiction. John Palmer’s actual wife, Rosa Palmer, did have four husbands, but none of them met violent ends, and the infamous Annie Palmer is largely fictional.
That said, the tale lives on. Visitors to Rose Hall claim that Annie’s spectral presence still roams the haunted mansion, instilling in people unshakable feelings of dread. Sightings of a pale woman gliding through the halls are fairly common, while night tours of the estate highlight purported tunnels, blood-stained spots, and places tied to alleged murders — and even allow visitors to participate in seances to try and summon Annie’s spirit.
