It is situated 12 miles (19 km) north of the capital city of Bridgetown, in the northern parish of Saint Peter.

The area is named after William Speight, a member of Barbados' first Assembly during the Settlement years, and the former owner of the land where the town is located.

Speightstown was formally settled around 1630 and in the earliest days of settlement was Barbados's busiest port (AMS Seaport Code: 27213, -- UN/LOCODE: BB SPT [3]).

The town itself is currently the subject of an archaeological research project, the Speightstown Community Archaeology Project (SCAP), which was established in 2010 and involves a collaboration between archaeologists and students of the University of Winchester, the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) and Barbados Museums.

To date work has focused upon an historic buildings categorisation of the town, graveyard memorial survey and excavations at the eighteenth-century coastal fort at Maycock's Bay to the north.