Death on the diamond diggings and later during the Anglo-Boer War, gave Kimberley many haunted corners. So too did failed romance and other downright gory deaths, like a huge fire in the old De Beers Mine in which hundreds of miners perished. Today, the shivering facts and fallacies about ghostly visitations are packed in a fun and entertaining guided ghost trails. Kimberley has many stories of ghost sightings in haunted places.
Kimberley’s ghost tours are renowned for the number and variety of their resident spirits. Many apparitions haunt some of the old mining town’s most historic houses and monuments, while on an Anglo-Boer battlefield just outside the town, a lonely phantom Scottish piper plays on moonlit nights. Guides lead you to some of the reputedly haunted corners of Kimberley. Some places visited could include the Kimberley Club, Rhodes’ Boardroom and Rudd House – an archetypal haunted house. The tour ends just before the clock announces the bewitching hour at the grave of the Frankensteins in the Gladstone Cemetery.
There are several alternative Ghost tours available, including the recently launched Big Hole Ghost Walk as well as a visit to Magersfontein battlefield at night where perhaps one may see the swinging lanterns of the stretcher bearers and hear the ghostly bagpipes. Several battlefield graveyards are also visited on this unique tour.
Perhaps one of the best loved Kimberley ghost tours begins at the Honoured Dead Memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker for the 27 British soldiers killed during the Siege of Kimberley between 1899 and 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War. Sip a welcoming glass of sherry to soothe your nerves, and then off you go.
Kimberley has 158 haunted houses and buildings with well over 200 still to be verified by paranormal experts, but you’ll visit ones known to have resident ghosts!
- In the historic Africana library, the restless spirit of the first librarian roams. He drank arsenic after he was found doctoring the accounts. Many visitors have seen books inexplicably crashing to the floor, and heard teacups tinkling at 4pm.
- At Rudd House, a lady in white appears on the balcony; the former sick room is haunted by Percy Rudd the first owner; and the servants’ quarters have at least six ghosts in the courtyard.
- On a Kimberley ghost tour you’ll also visit the beautiful old Kimberley Club, where a ghostly waiter serves in the dining room, an elderly man walks the upstairs passage, and a woman in period dress stands on the staircase.
- In the old De Beers boardroom, an unknown ghost drifts by as lights swing mysteriously, and a ghost dog emits an ethereal howl on the porch. On occasion, balls of fire have dropped from the porch ceiling.
- At the McGregor Museum, once a nunnery, a phantom nun wanders, while at the Terry Hall of Militia, a baby’s wail can be heard as the lid of a tin trunk mysteriously opens and closes.
- And if you visit the Magersfontein Anglo-Boer battlefield on a moonlit night you may well hear a phantom Scottish piper and see the flickering ghostly lanterns of the stretcher-bearers – over 50% of visitors claim they have!
For further info contact:
Steve Lunderstedt: 083 732 3189
Jaco Powell: 082 572 0065
