St Helena/A2

The A2 starts in Jamestown and climbs up the east side of the valley past The Briars and through the district of Alarm Forest. Whilst not signed, like the other A roads on the island the numbering is purely for administrative purposes, the A2 nominaly terminates at Hutts Gate, where the road splits left to Longwood and right to Levelwood.

Side Path

The A2 starts at the Canister mini roundabout at the top of Main Street in the town centre. It starts climbing immediately up Napoleon Street, a narrow street often clogged with parked cars. Mundens Road turns off to the left, and quickly becomes a dirt road although if plans to redevelop the old Mundens Fort go ahead this may change. On the right Nose Gay Lane doubles back down to the market house. Still climbing, the last houses are passed, and Seale's Corner forks off to the left as the road becomes Side Path. Similar to Ladder Hill on the other side of the valley, Side Path winds its way quite steeply up the hillside, although it is at least S2 most of the time, sometimes wider. Just beyond a dip in the ridge above, Field Road turns back sharp left to cross the ridge and drop down into Ruperts. almost immediately after this a double right fork leads first to Constitution Hill and second into The Briars.

The Briars is a small residential area surrounding The Briars Pavllion, the original home of Napoleon on St Helena. The area is experiencing some development, but at present there is just the one road, and a dirt road leading off to Barnes Road (see below).

Constitution Hill

The third way out of Jamestown is Constitution Hill. Starting at the bottom of Ladder Hill, on the A1 as New Bridge, the road passes the Hospital, crosses the bridge over The Run and gently climbs up through upper Jamestown. After nearly half a mile it hairpins back to the left and starts climbing steeply out of the valley. At the third hairpin, a dirt road leads off up the valley. This is the now disused Barnes Road to Frances Plain, still a popular walk which provides access to the Heart Shaped Waterfall. This is the last hairpin, but the gradient remains steep up to The Briars junction.

The Briars - Gordons Post

The A2 continues to climb steeply above The Briars, albeit with the landscape becoming steadily less barren than Side Path was. It also remains mainly S2 as it doubles back around a hairpin bend, quickly followed by another as it crosses a ridge and enters the dispersed settlement of Alarm Forest. A number of driveways and side roads lead off on either side to provide access to the houses scattered across the hillside behind those lining the road. Another pair of hairpins lift the road up onto another ridge, still heading south, and still climbing all the way to the T junction of Gordons Post.

Gordons Post - Hutts Gate

Turning right at Gordons Post leads across the island to The Dungeon, while the A2 continues south, the gradient easing as it winds around a hill which persists in feeling residential, with scattered houses peering out from behind the trees and hedges on the roadside. As the houses finally come to an end, a grassy track leads down to the left to the tomb where Napoleon was originally buried, and then the road winds along the hillside with a retaining wall on the left and trees on a steep hillside to the right. The climb is negligible now, in St Helenian terms at least, as we head towards the end of the route at Hutts Gate.