Mount Vaea

---

title: "Mount Vaea" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mountains-of-samoa", "robert-louis-stevenson", "populated-places-in-tuamasaga", "nature-conservation-in-samoa", "protected-areas-of-samoa"] description: "Mountain in Samoa, burial place of Robert Louis Stevenson" topic_path: "general/mountains-of-samoa" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vaea" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Mountain in Samoa, burial place of Robert Louis Stevenson ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain"]

Field	Value
name	Mount Vaea
photo	Round Samoan houses with blue roofs, Lepea village with Mt Vaea beyond.JPG
photo_caption	View of Mt Vaea from Lepea village to the northwest.
elevation_m	472
elevation_ref
location	Upolu, Samoa
map	Samoa
map_size	200
label_position	right
coordinates
coordinates_ref
::

| name = Mount Vaea | photo = Round Samoan houses with blue roofs, Lepea village with Mt Vaea beyond.JPG | photo_caption = View of Mt Vaea from Lepea village to the northwest. | elevation_m = 472 | elevation_ref = | prominence_m = | location = Upolu, Samoa | map = Samoa | map_size = 200 | label_position = right | coordinates = | range_coordinates = | coordinates_ref = | topo = | type = | age = | first_ascent = | easiest_route =

Mount Vaea is a 472 m summit overlooking Apia, the capital of Samoa located on the north central coast of Upolu island. The mountain is situated south about 3 km inland from Apia township and harbour. The settlement at the foothills on the northern side of the mountain is called Lalovaea (below Vaea in Samoan).

Connections to Robert Louis Stevenson

Mount Vaea is best known as the burial place of the Scottish writer and poet Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived the last four years of his life in Samoa before his death on 3 December 1894. Stevenson, who had lived on the east side of Mount Vaea, had chosen the mountain top as his final resting place. The day following his death, his coffin was carried by Samoans to the summit for burial. The steep path to his grave is called the 'Road of Loving Hearts.'

Inscribed on Stevenson's tomb is his epitaph:

Under the wide and starry sky,

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to be;

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

The ashes of his wife Fanny Stevenson, who died in California in 1914, were taken back by her daughter to Samoa in 1915 and buried beside her husband. The bronze plaque for Fanny bears her Samoan name 'Aolele' (Flying Cloud in Samoan).

Stevenson's estate and colonial home, Villa Vailima, is now the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in his honour. It is situated in the village of Vailima at the eastern foot of Mount Vaea.

Memorial and Scenic Reserve

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Burial_and_grave_of_Robert_Louis_Stevenson_in_Samoa,_1894.jpg" caption="Thomas Andrew]]."] ::

Stevenson's memorial on Mount Vaea and more than 100 acre from the estate are protected by law in Samoa through the Stevenson Memorial Reserve and Mount Vaea Scenic Reserve Ordinance 1958.

Part of the 1958 Law states;

::quote

::

• Certain lands on Mount Vaea which is the resting place of Robert Louis Stevenson formerly of Vailima (known to the people of Samoa as Tusitala), and of Fanny Stevenson, his wife, has been given to the Government of Samoa by the heir of the said Fanny Stevenson as a memorial to Robert Louis Stevenson.
• The lands described...shall be known as the Stevenson Memorial Reserve and shall be maintained in perpetuity by the Government of Samoa in memory of Robert Louis Stevenson and his love for the people of Samoa.
• ....the Mount Vaea Scenic Reserve shall be maintained in perpetuity by the Government of Samoa as a scenic reserve.}}

References

References

1. "Mount Vaea, Samoa".
2. Albert Wendt, Robert Louis Stevenson, Roger Robertson. (2004). "Robert Louis Stevenson; his best Pacific writings". University of Queensland Press.
3. It takes about an hour to ascend by foot. Stevenson was called Tusitala ([[Samoan language]]: ''tusi'' 'book', ''tala'' 'writer') by the people of Samoa.Samoan Dictionary, G.B.Milner
4. "Robert Louis Stevenson grave photo".
5. Terry, Reginald Charles. (1996). "Robert Louis Stevenson interviews and recollections". University of Iowa Press.
6. "Robert Louis Stevenson Museum".
7. "Stevenson Memorial Reserve and Mount Vaea Scenic Reserve Ordinance 1958". Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::