The Bath Hotel, built in 1778, was once considered the finest hotel in the Caribbean. Wealthy planters and merchants came from across the region to take the waters in the natural hot springs that emerge from the volcanic rock at the base of Nevis Peak. The springs reach around 51°C and were believed to cure rheumatism and various ailments. At its peak the hotel hosted hundreds of guests, including Prince William Henry (later King William IV) who visited with Horatio Nelson in 1787.
The hotel building itself is a ruin — damaged in various hurricanes and earthquakes and long since derelict — but the Spring House above the springs remains in partial use as a bath house. Local visitors still come to soak in the hot sulphurous water, and the baths can be used for a small fee. The ruins give a vivid sense of the ambition of 18th-century colonial resort architecture, and the springs themselves are the real thing.