Early History of Bothas Hill
Narrator - The late Peter Reece
In the early 1800's, a route had been established westwards between Port Natal (Durban) and Natal's Capital (Pietermaritzburg), some 80 Km (50 miles) apart. A wagon-track scaled the hillslopes around steep valleys and clear streams, sometimes overwhelmed by huge bouldered cliffs and sheer escarpments, and sometimes flanked by rolling grasslands or luxuriant tropical riverine forest. Deep clefts in the slopes were sprinkled with waterfalls and meandering streams, and the difficult track had to pick its way through these numerous obstacles between the two towns.
Almost half-way on the route to Pietermaritzburg, one such hill stands: Botha's Hill. In the early 1840's, a Voortrekker, J.J. (Hans) Potgieter found a beautiful lush valley west of the hill, surrounded by sheer sandstone cliffs and dense grasslands, and decided to settle there. In 1848, his farm was registered as Assagay Kraal. In 1850, George Mason (a Byrne settler) and his brother were walking from Durban to Pietermaritzburg and described the farm as viewed from Botha's Hill: "From this cutting, which is very narrow - indeed just a ledge on the mountainside - you get a 'bird's-eye-view' of Potgieter's farm, down a well-watered valley to the left, with a snug Dutch homestead, a large orchard, some fields of ripening corn, and droves of cattle, forming a pretty picture when contrasted with the barren steeps, and wild craggy peaks by which it is walled in all around." On the eastern side of the hill, another farm of about 6000 acres was registered as Buffelsfontein and a roadside inn, "Elliot's Inn" was built, later renamed variously as the Albany Hotel, Botha's Halfway House, The Black Horse, and Padley's Hotel, until it closed around 1880.
The naming of Botha's Hill has, apparently, two contenders. Philip Rudolph Botha (according to T.V. Bulpin in his book: "To the shores of Natal") took land in the area in the mid-1800's. His grandson later became the famous Louis Botha, "one of the giants of South African history". But local historians, among them Robin Lamplough, now favour Cornelis Botha who had established Botha's Halfway House on the Buffelsfontein Farm in the early 1850's.
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In the early 1800's, a route had been established westwards between Port Natal (Durban) and Natal's Capital (Pietermaritzburg), some 80 Km (50 miles) apart. A wagon-track scaled the hillslopes around steep valleys and clear streams, sometimes overwhelmed by huge bouldered cliffs and sheer escarpments, and sometimes flanked by rolling grasslands or luxuriant tropical riverine forest. Deep clefts in the slopes were sprinkled with waterfalls and meandering streams, and the difficult track had to pick its way through these numerous obstacles between the two towns.
Almost half-way on the route to Pietermaritzburg, one such hill stands: Botha's Hill. In the early 1840's, a Voortrekker, J.J. (Hans) Potgieter found a beautiful lush valley west of the hill, surrounded by sheer sandstone cliffs and dense grasslands, and decided to settle there. In 1848, his farm was registered as Assagay Kraal. In 1850, George Mason (a Byrne settler) and his brother were walking from Durban to Pietermaritzburg and described the farm as viewed from Botha's Hill: "From this cutting, which is very narrow - indeed just a ledge on the mountainside - you get a 'bird's-eye-view' of Potgieter's farm, down a well-watered valley to the left, with a snug Dutch homestead, a large orchard, some fields of ripening corn, and droves of cattle, forming a pretty picture when contrasted with the barren steeps, and wild craggy peaks by which it is walled in all around." On the eastern side of the hill, another farm of about 6000 acres was registered as Buffelsfontein and a roadside inn, "Elliot's Inn" was built, later renamed variously as the Albany Hotel, Botha's Halfway House, The Black Horse, and Padley's Hotel, until it closed around 1880.
The naming of Botha's Hill has, apparently, two contenders. Philip Rudolph Botha (according to T.V. Bulpin in his book: "To the shores of Natal") took land in the area in the mid-1800's. His grandson later became the famous Louis Botha, "one of the giants of South African history". But local historians, among them Robin Lamplough, now favour Cornelis Botha who had established Botha's Halfway House on the Buffelsfontein Farm in the early 1850's.
read more