Milk River Hotel & Spa

Milk River Spa and Hotel belongs to the government and is operated by the Ministry of Tourism.

The hotel, built against a limestone cliff and upstairs of the mineral baths, overlooks the Milk River.

The food is good, with plenty of fish from nearby Farquhars Beach.

Downstairs there are nine tiled baths with a continuous flow of lukewarm mineral water. The analysis of the mineral spring shows it as more radioactive than leading European spas, (fifty-four times as active as Baden in Switzerland and three times as active as Karlsbad, Austria).

The waters are reputed to cure numerous ailments including rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, sciatica, lumbago, nerve conditions and liver disorders.

The spa was discovered in the eighteenth century by a slave belonging to Jonathan Ludford.

The slave, who had been punished and severely beaten escaped from Ludfords estate and hid in the nearby hills where he discovered a salty spring, drank the water and bathed his battered body before returning in fine shape to the slave village.

Ludford, amazed at the mans recovery promised never to punish him again if he would show him the miraculous spring. He then fenced the place, put the slave there as a watchman and eventually willed the property to the government.

The first baths were constructed and opened to the public in 1794.