Silver Sands was created as a residential resort in about 1945 out of the east end of a 600acre estate known from 1795 as Johnson's Estate, subsequently Johnson's Pen (signifying that use had changed from sugar cane/pasture/pimento/ground provisions to the raising of cattle). The neighbouring development, known as Duncans Bay, was laid out in the late 1960's. Johnson's Pen is bounded to the west by Stewart Castle and to the east by what we colloquially know as "Veira's Property" which may once have been part of the next estate, Harmony Hall.
The Silver Sands/Veira property boundary coincides with one of the many fault lines (shown in black) that bear witness to Jamaica's upheavals during the last 100 million years (see Formation of Jamaica). The coral reefs that were laid down in the Eocene (between 40-25 million years ago) are known, in the SSands area, as the Montpelier Formation and tectonic uplift of the Caribbean basin brought these above-water in Jamaica's most-recent incarnation. More recently the Island of Jamaica has tipped, raising the reef further: the present 20-foot contour, shown in brown, corresponds to the resulting Pleistocene reef terrace; note the discontinuity at the fault line where the Silver Sands area was uplifted with respect to the Veira property.

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