Your Harbour Island CME conference.

Harbour Island after your study day

Study days finish at 2:00 PM Harbour Island time. For an easy afternoon, choose one outing near your study setting: a walk through Dunmore Town or a look at the harbour. Leave time for getting around the island.

Travel, accommodation and any admission are arranged separately. Your conference follows your specialty and interests; the island is the setting you choose for it.

Dunmore Town

Dunmore Town is the only town on Harbour Island. It is named for John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore, who governed the Bahamas from 1786 to 1798 and kept a summer residence on the island.

A small island in a lagoon

Harbour Island sits off the northeast coast of Eleuthera. Together with Jacobs Island, Man Island, Pierre Island and others, it forms a reef-like barrier that closes the east and north sides of a lagoon in the northeast corner of Eleuthera.

The island’s population was 1,762 in the 2010 census and 1,861 in 2022. Check your transport before you travel.

Spanish Wells next door

Spanish Wells is a separate district about 500 meters off the northern tip of Eleuthera. The settlement sits on St. George’s Cay, which measures about 610 meters wide by 2,860 meters long, and a bridge links it to neighboring Russell Island.

The district’s population was 1,608 in the 2022 census. Its history section describes the first British colonists as Eleutheran adventurers from Bermuda who were shipwrecked on a reef called the Devil’s Backbone in 1647 before reaching the area.

Beyond the island on Eleuthera

Eleuthera is about 110 miles long and little more than a mile wide at its narrowest, with the Atlantic Ocean on its eastern coast and the Great Bahama Bank on the west. The Hatchet Bay caves and Surfer’s Beach lie in the north, and Preacher’s Cave on the north end was home to the Eleutherian Adventurers in the mid-17th century. They arrived in 1648 from Bermuda under Captain William Sayle.

The Bahamas National Trust lists two parks on Eleuthera. Seahorse National Park, designated in late 2023, protects Sweetings Pond, a landlocked saltwater lagoon with a high-density seahorse population, and the nearby Hatchet Bay Cave in North Eleuthera. The Trust’s page says the park is temporarily closed, so check its current status before planning a visit.

The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve is a 30-acre botanic garden in Governor’s Harbour. It shows native and endemic Bahamian plants and has boardwalks and trails, including a mangrove boardwalk, a freshwater wetland and a tower, and its high bird activity suits birdwatching. Check how you would cross to and from Harbour Island, and how you would reach either place, before planning an outing.

Getting to Harbour Island and your study setting

North Eleuthera Airport serves Harbour Island, Spanish Wells and the northernmost third of Eleuthera. Check how you would cross to Harbour Island, and your transport at both ends, before you travel.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism’s directory of hotels groups its listings for Harbour Island and Spanish Wells together and names North Eleuthera as the nearest airport.

The map shows straight-line distances from Shift’s designated center. These are orientation distances, not driving distances or travel-time estimates. Check your exact address against the conference’s check-in area before booking.