The Hexagonal Fort

On the edge of the Kaapsche Hoop escarpment, where the ground falls sharply toward the De Kaap Valley, lies a six-sided earthwork — a hexagonal trench-fortification about twenty metres across, with an internal rock-fortified low wall and an external trench. It is the most tangible surviving trace of the village’s wartime role.

Rediscovered from the air

The hexagon was first identified on Google Earth aerial imagery around 2014–2016 by Mr Art Long of Johannesburg, and subsequently visited on the ground by local residents. Finds at the site included a rusted shell and a .303 cartridge of late-1880s British manufacture.

Where it sits

Its position — on the escarpment edge, matching Lt Stodart’s “thirty yards from the edge” and one of the Hippisley map’s named camp positions at Scot’s Camp — places it firmly within the ring of works that defended the occupied village.

The unit that built it is an open research question — and an earlier attribution to Steinaecker’s Horse is not supported by the record.The Hexagonal Fort

An open question

Who raised the earthwork is not yet settled. A widely-repeated attribution to Steinaecker’s Horse is not supported by the documentary record on that unit, whose base lay far to the east at Komatipoort. More plausible candidates among the documented Kaapsche Hoop garrison are the Royal Engineers Telegraph Division, the Elswick Battery, the Royal Scots, the 1st Liverpool Regiment, or the Northumberland Fusiliers Mounted Infantry. A full ground survey is an open research target.

Sources: modern field-research reporting on the Art Long / Reinette van Niekerk rediscovery; the Hippisley map; and the documented garrison record. The Steinaecker’s Horse attribution is corrected here as unsupported. Detailed citations are held in the project research file.