LEKKER HALLOWEEN
SA’s spookiest spots
Five spooky spots in South Africa
1. Tokai Manor, Cape Town
The beautiful Tokai Manor House, pictured right, in the Tokai Forest was built in 1796, bearing the unusual feature of a raised front stoep with steep stairs, atypical in CapeDutch architecture of the time.
The ghost story stems from the early 1800s, when owner Petrus Michiel Eksteen was famed for his elaborate parties. At a New Year’s Eve bash, Petrus dared his son Frederick to ride his horse up the staircase and into the dining room. Frederick did so, making a lap around the table, but on exiting, the horse slipped on the stairs. The fall killed both the rider and his horse.
These days, one can hear a horse galloping in the forest, and sometimes see a ghostly horseman attempting to ascend the stairs, especially on New Year’s Eve.
2. Lord Milner Hotel, Matjiesfontein
This tiny Karoo village, established at the height of Queen Victoria’s reign, is supposedly “the most haunted place in South Africa” — with much of the spooky action emanating from the grand Lord Milner Hotel.
Built in 1899, the hotel boasts the sounds of billiard balls clacking where no one is playing and laughter in empty rooms.
The ghost of James Logan, the town founder, is said to inhabit the elegant lounges and there are reportedly two female ghosts in residence. Lucy has been seen floating around the stairs, wearing a negligee. Sometimes, in the dead of night, a loud argument assumed to involve Lucy can be heard coming from one of the rooms, along with the sound of glasses being smashed. On investigation, though, all is calm.
Kate was a young nurse who liked to play cards in a tiny room at the top of the hotel, now labelled “Kate’s Card Room”, with recuperating patients. She died mysteriously at the age of 19. Now people report seeing the card-room door inexplicably rattling, hearing the sound of cards being shuffled, and a woman in a nurse’s uniform floating in the passage.
In the town itself, a wounded British soldier with his arm in a sling and a bloody bandage on his head can be seen standing at the turn-off to the Memorial Cemetery.
3. Africana Library, Kimberley
The city’s first librarian is said to haunt the erstwhile Kimberley Public Library, built in