According to oral tradition, the site once ended at a plantation which the Maroons could not or "cunha cunha" pass. The trail was also an important trade route, particularly before the road was built that linked Morant Bay to Port Antonio. The pass provided passage, by foot and donkey, for produce grown in the upper Rio Grande Valley to markets on the southern plains.
The Cunha Cunha Pass Maroon Trail was restored and reopened by the Bowden Pen Farmers' Association, a community-based organisation in collaboration with the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, the Jamaica Conservation Development Trust and others in 2002 after being nearly wiped out during Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.
On the trail, visitors are exposed to the history of the Maroons as well as the fauna and flora of the Blue Mountains. The trail is one of the most popular routes that pass through the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park. The trail also has other important sites including the Three Finger Spring and Lookout which is a midpoint of Cunha Cunha Pass. It was from Lookout that the Maroons monitored plantations.
In 2011 the trail was declared a national heritage site.
