Nothing to do with monks in habits, St Nicholas Abbey is a magnificent Jacobean (17th-century) plantation great house – albeit, inevitably, built on the back of slavery.

Set in splendid grounds, which feature a croquet lawn and a herb garden, and surrounded by mahogany trees and cane fields, it is definitely one of the most interesting historical buildings to visit in Barbados.

The short guided tour only covers the ground floor of the house (the family still lives upstairs), and the back courtyard. Nevertheless, the mahogany furniture, Wedgewood china and silver tableware give you a good sense of the privileged lifestyle of the plantocracy (the plantation ruling class) at the time. Items of note include the planter’s chair, the four-seater toilet in the courtyard, and the slave ledger – a stark reminder of the brutal slave labour that allowed the plantation system to prosper – which the tour tends to underplay or ignore.