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Lakes BeachLakes Beach is situated on the East Coast of Barbados in the parish of St. Andrew, between Barclays Park and Cattlewash to the south and Walkers Beach to the north.
Lakes Beach belongs to an area of Barbados where the east and north coastlines are accompanied by the wild, powerful waves and intricate coral reefs of the Atlantic Ocean. Lovers of walks surrounded by the amazing scenery found on this Atlantic coastline in Barbados can ramble the entire way north from Lakes Beach, through Walkers Beach and finally to Morgan Lewis Beach.
In contrast to the ever developing west coast locations, visitors will not find crowds, luxury hotels, shopping malls, or a calm sea in this part of Barbados. In fact, the opposite applies to Lakes Beach and other beaches and bays in the parish of St. Andrew, where peace and tranquillity, a lack of commercialism and tourism oriented ventures, rolling hills and landscapes, and the deafening sounds of the Atlantic’s ferocious waves pounding the expanses of beautiful beach, preside.
As with many other East Coast beach locations, you are advised not to swim at Lake Beach due to the strength of the waves and the erratic currents and undertows. There are no facilities at Lakes Beach, and no coastguard.
There are very few other Barbados attractions and points of interest close to Lakes Beach, but if you want to combine a visit to Lakes Beach with another Barbados sightseeing opportunity why not visit the nearby Long Pond, one of the last remaining significant coastal wetlands in Barbados. Although 'fed' by the rough Atlantic waves, nearby sand dunes protect the Long Pond area, leaving its waters calm and peaceful and capable of providing habitats and breeding areas for local species of fish, birds, crustaceans and fauna.
In support of proposals for a conservation area at Long Pond, the overall aim being to protect the wetlands area from developmental ravage whilst retaining its sustainable role, a 2006 study* reported on the changing face of the landscape that encompasses Long Pond in Barbados. Using aerial photography, one focus of the study was on visible changes over the last fifty years on seven different habitats in the area, one being the stretch of beach incorporating Lakes Beach, Walkers Beach and Morgan Lewis Beach. The researchers discovered that the size of the beach area had increased from 2.5% to 8.6% beach area during the study period (1951-2004).
In fact, fifty years ago, Lakes Beach in Barbados was simply sand dunes and vegetation - now in the twenty first century, Lakes Beach is a wide, beautiful beach; good news for sea turtles, as from April to June Lakes Beach is a nesting site for Leatherback turtles (for the full report including images illustrating the fluctuating size of the beach area due to erosion, click here).
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