Old English Fort 1899

South Africa , South Africa

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The Old English Fort 1899 is a small, historic stone fort near Montagu in the Klein Karoo, perched high on a rock overlooking the R62 road through Cogmanskloof Pass, about 4 km from Montagu towards Ashton.

Built in 1899 at the start of the Second Anglo‑Boer War, the fort was constructed by stonemason William Robertson on a site chosen by Lieutenant Colonel Sidney, Commandant of the Royal Field Artillery, and was garrisoned by a company of the Gordon Highlanders—survivors of the Battle of Magersfontein—who were commanded by Lieutenant Forbes.

The fort measures roughly 9.3 by 3.8 metres on the outside, with stone walls about 400 mm thick rising to about 2 metres inside, and it has a simple entrance at the west end and 21 waisted loopholes (narrow openings for firing) set into the masonry without steel plates, positioned about 700–800 mm above the concrete floor.

Inside, near the south‑east corner, there is a circular mortared stone platform some 400 mm high together with a drainage channel and hole at the base of the adjacent east wall, suggesting that the building may have once had a roof and a water tank, and it is thought that the entrance was protected by a screen wall either inside or outside.