About Big Ambergris Cay

Ambergris Cay is an island within the Turks and Caicos Islands. It was named for valuable deposits of ambergris, a waxy substance that migrating humpback whales secrete, found on the 8 miles (13 km) of shoreline. The island is approximately four miles long, one mile (1.6 km) wide, and 1,100 acres (4.5 km) in total. It was uninhabited until 1997, but has a small population today.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Loyalists settled on Ambergris Cay, raised cows, made pottery, and built houses, stables, and cisterns (ruins still exist of each of these)