Goldeneye (estate)

Goldeneye
General information
Location Oracabessa, Jamaica
Coordinates 18°24′37″N 76°56′37″W / 18.410406°N 76.9436502°WCoordinates: 18°24′37″N 76°56′37″W / 18.410406°N 76.9436502°W
Owner Chris Blackwell
Management Island Outpost
Website
www.theflemingvilla.com

Goldeneye is the original name of popular James Bond novelist Ian Fleming's estate on Oracabessa bay on the northern coastline of Jamaica. He purchased land adjacent to the renowned Golden Clouds estate in 1946 and built his home on the edge of a cliff overlooking a private beach.

Constructed from Fleming's sketch, the modest three bedroom structure was fitted with wooden jalousie windows. A pool made swimming convenient.[1] Fleming's visitors at Goldeneye included actors, musicians and filmmakers.[2] The property now operates as Goldeneye Hotel and Resort, an upscale retreat consisting of Fleming's main house and several cottages.

History

In spite of its obvious proximity to Golden Cloud, Fleming claimed a number of origins for the name Goldeneye, including Carson McCullers's 1941 novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye and Operation Goldeneye, a Second World War era contingency plan Fleming had developed in case of a Nazi invasion of Gibraltar through Spain.[3]

Fleming joined The Sunday Times in 1946, for which he oversaw the paper's worldwide network of correspondents. He negotiated a contract whereby he could spend January and February of each year at Goldeneye. On 17 February 1952 James Bond appeared in the first Bond novel, Casino Royale.[4] For the next fourteen years Fleming wrote all his Bond stories there.[5]

A number of the Bond movies, including Dr. No and Live and Let Die, were filmed near the estate.[6] In 1956 British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden and his wife Clarissa spent a month at Goldeneye after Eden's health collapsed in the wake of the Suez Crisis. The attendant publicity helped to boost Fleming's writing career.

In 1976, 12 years after Ian Fleming's death, the property was sold to reggae musician Bob Marley. A year later he sold the estate to Island Records founder Chris Blackwell.[7] In 1995 GoldenEye would be the title of the seventeenth James Bond film, the first to star Pierce Brosnan.

The estate is located in the Oracabessa Bay Fish Sanctuary, established in 2011 to protect the area's marine ecosystem.[8] It is adjacent to James Bond Beach.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Description of house
  2. ↑ Fleming's celebrity guests
  3. ↑ "The man behind Bond". BBC News. 1999-11-19.
  4. ↑ [Fleming, Jamaica (1946 - 1964) | http://www.ianfleming.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=219]
  5. ↑ Rosenberg, Matthew J. (1993-11-30). "James Bond created at Jamaica retreat". The Miami Herald. p. 5A.
  6. ↑ "Jamaican retreat getting a facelift". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2007-02-14.
  7. ↑ "Jamaica's Goldeneye to target residential tourists". USA Today. 2007-02-06.
  8. ↑ "Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary". Oracabessa Foundation.

External links