History Webs

For the Drakenstein Valley

Reference

The Romance of the Cape mountain passes, Graham Ross, David Philip Publishers, Cape Town, 2002.

Sir Lowry's Pass

Sir Lowry’s Pass through the Hottentot Holland Mountains was completed in 1830. The roads through the latter and Franschhoek Mountains converged at the farm Boontjieskraal on the Swart River, about 10km west of Caledon.under construction.

Franschhoek Pass - completed 1825

Until the French Huguenots settled in what was then known as Olifantshoek, the only route through the Franschhoek mountains to the interior was along a track created by migrating elephants - hence the name. The route was very narrow and steep, and could not be used by wagons.
    In 1818 the Cape government contracted a local farmer - SJ Cats - to build a mountain pass. He had no formal training, and completed the road a year later. The route remained dangerous, and wagons could only carry a maximum load of eight bags of corn. Cats’ road soon fell into disuse.
    In 1822 Major William Cuthbert Holloway, head of the Colonial Engineer’s department, chaired a commission to examine the feasibility building a pass - either through the Franschhoek mountains or through the Hottentots Holland Mountains. The commission calculated that the latter would be five times more expensive, so the choice fell on Franschhoek.
    Labour would be provided by the 150 soldiers of the Royal Africa Corps stationed temporarily in Cape Town while waiting to be deployed to Serra Leone.
    The pass was completed in 1825 and the road was broad enough for allow two wagons to pass each other.
Franschhoek Pass was SA’s first professionally designed and constructed mountain pass, and it also has the country’s oldest stone arch bridge (Jan Joubert’s Gat bridge), and the oldest still in use.