The main road south from St John's, cutting through the very centre of Antigua, first hits the coast at Falmouth Harbour . This large and beautiful natural harbour has been used as a safe anchorage since the days of the earliest colonists, and the town that sprang up beside it was the first major settlement on the island. Today, though the harbour is still often busy with yachts, Falmouth itself is a quiet place, most of the activity in the area having moved east to English Harbour and Nelson's Dockyard, divided from Falmouth Harbour by a small peninsula known as the Middle Ground .