Located in the string of cays between Providenciales and North Caicos, Pine Cay is an 800 acre privately owned island. It was the site of the first tourist development in the charming archipelago that is the Turks and Caicos Islands and is home to Pine Cay and a small number of private homes. With the exception of a settlement of Taino Indians that likely date back to the 11th Century, Pine Cay had no permanent population until Pine Cay was built in the early 1970s. Named after a small forest of endemic and endangered Caicos Pines (Pinus caribaea var. bahamensis), a subspecies of the Caribbean Pine, the island is less than a mile wide and only two miles long. Despite its small size, the island has over 9 miles of trails to explore, and a breathtaking 2 mile stretch of white sand beach. The ideal place for beach walking, the island is connected to its neighbors, Water Cay and Little Water Cay meaning that it is even possible to walk the beach for 5 miles to the end of Little Water Cay.