Historic Town of St George: Visitor and Heritage Guide

What is inscribed, and when

UNESCO records the Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda (2000).

Note what the name includes. The inscription covers more than the town, because the fortifications are part of it. A visitor who walks the streets and skips the defenses has seen part of the property rather than the whole of it.

Why you find it under the United Kingdom

The record above comes from the UNESCO States Party page for the United Kingdom, not from a page for Bermuda. States Parties to the World Heritage Convention are sovereign states, and Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory. Its World Heritage Site is therefore listed under the United Kingdom, with Bermuda named in the property's own title.

That is a small administrative fact with a large explanatory reach. It is the same status that governs the entry rules on our entry requirements guide and the note on our etiquette guide that Bermuda is a separate legal jurisdiction to the United Kingdom despite the connection.

St George is a town where people live

The Bermuda National Trust, writing about the Globe Museum, describes it as one of the earliest houses in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of St George and describes St George as Bermuda's former capital.

Both halves are worth carrying. A former capital is a place that was the center of something and then was not, which is usually why a historic core survives at all. And a house inside a World Heritage Site is a reminder that this is an inhabited town rather than a preserved ruin: people live and work inside the inscribed area, and a visitor is walking through their day.

Visiting

This guide gives no opening hours, admission price or tour schedule, because none appears in its register of sources and all of them change. The Bermuda National Trust and the Government of Bermuda are the authorities for current visitor information, and both publish it directly.

Practical planning is the same as for anywhere else on the island, which is to say it is shaped by the fact that tourists are not allowed to drive cars in Bermuda. St George is reached by bus, ferry or taxi. Our transportation guide explains what that means for a day plan.

One claim this guide is careful about

Bermuda has exactly one property on the World Heritage List, and it is this one. The Royal Naval Dockyard, which our Dockyard guide covers, is a major heritage site with a national museum inside it, and it is not part of this inscription. The two are frequently confused and this cluster keeps them apart deliberately.

Sources

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre: United Kingdom States Party record, under which Bermuda is listed as a British Overseas Territory: the Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• Bermuda National Trust: The Globe Museum: one of the earliest houses in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of St George, Bermuda's former capital. Accessed 18 September 2026.