Formerly a military hill station for the British Army it is now a training centre for the Jamaica Defence Force.
Newcastle lies on the Kingston to Buff Bay road through the National Park.
[1][2] Newcastle became a military centre in the 1840s when Major General Sir William Maynard Gomm, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica (and Britain's longest serving soldier), observed that yellow fever, a major cause of death among the British troops stationed in Jamaica, was far less prevalent in the mountains.
[3] After unsuccessful attempts to persuade the government to pay for the construction of a military barracks up in the hills, Gomm went ahead with construction of the barracks at the Newcastle coffee plantation on his own initiative.
[4] During the colonial period until 1959, Newcastle was used as a "change-of-air camp" by British regiments stationed in Jamaica.