Fort Beaufort

In the fifth frontier war between the Xhosa and the white settlers, the Xhosa were driven back across the Keiskamma River. The Cape Government decided to maintain the area between the Keiskamma and Great Fish Rivers as a buffer zone. Fort Beaufort was one of the forts built to maintain the peace in the area.

Fort Beaufort was built in the circular architectural style of a Martello Tower, commonly used in coastal defence of England and France. Fort Beaufort was the most effective of these forts as it was positioned between the banks of the Keiskamma and Great Fish Rivers in an extremely defensible position. During the eighth frontier war it withstood an offensive by a full Xhosa army.

Andrew Geddes Bain, an amateur geologist and later builder of many mountain passes, built the first road from Fort Beaufort to Katberg in the north in the 1840s. During the construction of the road near Blinkwater he discovered a fossilised reptile, which he promptly named the 'Blinkwater monster'.

Fort Beaufort is not one of the Eastern Cape's great attractions. It does have a reputation for gorgeous oranges (in the winter you'll find roadside traders selling them by the bag), and the original Martello Tower and the peculiar Fort Beaufort Museum are the town's main points of interest.

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