The hill behind Graaff-Reinet is known as magazine Hill. But do you know why it has the name? Perhaps there was a battle fought here during the Anglo Boar War. Maybe local Burgers shot at the British from here while the town declared independence. Could a rebel have been shot here at some stage during the history of the town?
The answer isn’t quite as tragic or exciting, but it could easily have been linked to such an event. Also, it’s actually literally very obvious. The town’s old Gunpowder Magazine is located on the hill. The Kruithuis was constructed on the crest of a barren hill to the north of the village in the 1830s in order to store gunpowder, resulting from the passing of an ordinance by the Colonial Administration regulating the safe storage of this volatile explosive. Charles Lennox Stretch, the Government Surveyor at Graaff-Reinet, surveyed the site on Crown Land and the Magazine was constructed in 1831. The building’s door has been bricked up but from the broken glass around its clear that its a popular spot for some locals to come and enjoy a few, probably on weekends. But from a historical perspective its an interesting site with a very nice view.
