Jamaican cliff-top villa a place to Bond

James Bond didn’t sleep there, but he was born there 50 years ago in the pages of “Casino Royale.”

“There” is Goldeneye, the Jamaican cliff-top hideaway of Bond creator and author Ian Fleming. The recently released film “Die Another Day” brings 007 back to the big screen, the hero and his capers having evolved in the decades since Fleming introduced him. So too has Goldeneye, which has become a resort for those who, like Fleming’s super spy, have a taste for Mont Blanc pens and martinis well made.

Goldeneye was once a simple beach house so lacking in luxuries and clinically uncomfortable that Fleming friend Noel Coward referred to it as “Goldeneye, Nose and Throat.”

No longer. Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records who introduced the world to Bob Marley and reggae and to Irish rock band U2, bought the property in the ‘70s, renovated it and opened it as a high-end resort in the ‘90s. He has added five rental villas, some of them named for Bond girls. Prices begin at $595 a day, depending on season, for a one-bedroom villa in Goldeneye Village. The three-bedroom main house, which has a private pool, rents for $2,500 to $3,500 a day.

All units have access to a private beach, and prices include meals, beverages and a 30-minute Jet Ski lesson. Other activities are tennis, snorkeling, kayaking and a glass-bottom boat trip that leaves from nearby James Bond Beach.

The resort is near Oracabessa on the north coast, a 30-minute drive from Ocho Rios. It is part of Blackwell’s Island Outpost collection of boutique hotels.

Fleming bought the property in 1946 and built the simple one-story house to which he escaped from gloomy English winters.

“He just loved the simplicity of Jamaica, the fact that he could get away from any social life,” Blackwell says. “He was kind of a loner, and Goldeneye was the place he’d go to get away completely.” After his morning swim, he would tap away on his Imperial Good Companion typewriter, creating many of his 14 James Bond thrillers at the rate of 2,000 words a day.

Fleming died in 1964 at the age of 56. His only child and heir, Casper, committed suicide in 1975, and the property had fallen into disrepair when Blackwell purchased it.

“When I bought it, I got a machete and started to chop all around and found some incredible parts of the property that had never been seen before,” he says.

With Balinese-inspired furnishings, ethnic art and bamboo-enclosed outdoor baths with showers and claw-foot tubs, Goldeneye has been a getaway destination for rock stars such as Mick Jagger and Hollywood celebrities -- including the original 007, Sean Connery, and the reigning 007, Pierce Brosnan.

There are plans to build more cottages, for private ownership, and a 100-room hotel on the property, which boasts three miles of waterfront on the Caribbean. Construction is to start in 2003, with a goal for completion in late 2005.

For information, contact Island Outpost, (800) 688-7678, www.islandoutpost.com.