Scotts Head is a village on the southwest coast of Dominica

Dominica

Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...

, in Saint Mark Parish

Saint Mark Parish, Dominica

Saint Mark is one of Dominica's 10 administrative parishes. It is bordered by St. Luke and St. Patrick . With an area of 9.9 km² , it is the smallest in the island. It has a population of 1,891 people....

. As of 2001, its population was 721. Predominantly a fishing village, Scotts Head overlooks Soufrière Bay, which is protected as the Soufrière Scotts Head Marine Reserve. It is also a popular snorkeling and diving site for tourists.

The village shares its name with the Caribbean's only tied island

Tied island

Tied islands, or land-tied islands, as they are often known, are a landform where the island is only connected to land by a tombolo—a spit of beach materials connected to land at both ends. The Isle of Portland on the south coast of England is an example of this; it was once an island but is now...

, a small peninsula with a rising headland that extends westward from the village at Dominica's southwest tip. The Carib name of the peninsula is Cachacrou, literally a "hat which is being eaten"; this is possibly a reference to its location at the convergence of the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

 to its north and the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 to its south.

Scotts Head holds an annual village feast in honor of Saint Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

 in June or July.

History

Scotts Head was named after Colonel George Scott, who had served in the British invasion force that captured Dominica from the French in 1761 and then became lieutenant governor of Dominica from 1764 to 1767. Scott oversaw the construction of a fort on the headland of the Scotts Head peninsula; the bulk of this fortification has collapsed down the cliff into the water, though some ruins remain, including a small cannon.

When the French retook Dominica

Invasion of Dominica

The Invasion of Dominica was a successful French invasion of the island of Dominica in the British West Indies, during the American War of Independence. The action took place before British authorities in the Caribbean were aware that France had entered the war as an ally of the United States of...

 in 1778 (only to hand it back in 1783 as a concession in the Treaty of Versailles), the fort at Scotts Head was the first invasion point and the site of the first skirmish. In anticipation of the invasion, French inhabitants of Dominica visited British troops at the fort on 6 September, getting them drunk and then spiking the cannons with sand. French fleets sailed between three and four o'clock on 7 September from Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

, the French-controlled island directly to Dominica's south. When the French stormed the fort in the morning, the British were taken by surprise. Once the fort was captured, the French fired a celebration signal, which was the first notice of the invasion the British had in the capital of Roseau

Roseau

-Architecture:The central district of Roseau is tightly packed with small and large houses and even larger modern concrete structures. There is little green or open space situated within the city, and this is even more so today, as many of the courtyards which was once commonplace within the city...

to the north.

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