Sir Lowry's Pass is a
mountain pass on the
N2 national road in the
Western Cape
The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...
province of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
. It crosses the
Hottentots Holland Mountains
The Hottentots Holland Mountains are part of the Cape Fold Belt in the Western Cape, South Africa. The mountain range forms a barrier between the Cape Town metropolitan area and the southern Overberg coast.
The range is primarily composed of T ...
between
Somerset West
Somerset West ( af, Somerset-Wes) is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa. Organisationally and administratively it is included in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality as a suburb of the Helderberg region (formerly called Hottent ...
and the
Elgin valley, on the main route between
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second larges ...
and the
Garden Route
The Garden Route (Afrikaans: ''Tuinroete'') is a stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa which extends from Witsand in the Western Cape to the border of Tsitsikamma Storms River in the Eastern Cape. The name comes from the verdant an ...
. A railway line also crosses the mountain range near this point.
The pass is 4 lanes wide and is subject to heavy traffic, especially at the start and end of holiday periods when many people travel in and out of the Cape Town area, and is sometimes seen as an accident black spot.
The summit of the pass is at 460 m. There is a viewpoint at this point which is also used as a
paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched Glider (aircraft), glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a :wikt:harness, harness o ...
launch point.
Baboons
Baboons are primates comprising the genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow baboon, the Kinda baboon and the chacma ...
are often seen in this area. The top of the pass was formerly the start of the
Boland Hiking Trail
Boland may refer to:
People with the surname
*Boland (baseball), a 19th-century baseball player
* Boland brothers (early 20th century), Frank, James, and Joseph; early American aircraft designers
*Akeel Boland (born 1991), BJJ Practitioner, Good J ...
, but this section of the trail was closed after a number of deaths due to the difficult hiking conditions.
[ On the Grabouw side, the road passes the ]Steenbras Dam
The Steenbras Dam ("STEE-un bruss"), now referred to as Steenbras Lower Dam, is a gravity concrete arch type dam located in the Hottentots-Holland mountains, above Gordons Bay, near Cape Town in South Africa. It is one of the six large dams that ...
.
Sir Lowry's Pass Village
Sir Lowry's Pass Village is a town near the base of Sir Lowry's Pass, about 60 km from Cape Town, South Africa.
History
In 1846 there was a post office, run by a postmistress, Mrs Walters, and six farms in the area. 43 years later the first ...
is situated near the base of the pass.
History
The mountain crossing in that region was known by the indigenous Khoi
Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
people as the ''Gantouw'' or Eland's Pass, and was used as a stock route. The Dutch and British settlers at the Cape built a rough pass called the ''Hottentots Holland Kloof Pass'' following the Gantouw route. The first recorded crossing was in 1664, and by 1821 the pass was seeing 4500 ox-wagon
An ox-wagon or bullock wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen (draught cattle). It was a traditional form of transport, especially in Southern Africa but also in New Zealand and Australia. Ox-wagons were also used in the United States. T ...
s per year crossing into the interior, but the route was so severe that more than 20% of them were damaged. The ruts left by these wagons being dragged over the mountains can still be seen, and were declared a National Monument in 1958.
Starting in 1828, a new pass was constructed on the current route that would allow ox wagons to navigate the pass without difficulty. Construction began at a site about 2 km to the south of the Hottentots Holland Kloof, by the engineer Charles Michell
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Collier Michell, KH (29 March 1793 in Exeter – 28 March 1851 in Eltham, London), later known as Charles Cornwallis Michell, was a British soldier, first surveyor-general in the Cape, road engineer, architect, artist ...
using convict labour. The new pass was opened on 6 July 1830, and named after Lowry Cole
Hon. Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, (1 May 1772 – 4 October 1842) was an Anglo-Irish British Army general and politician.
Early life
Cole was the second son of an Irish peer, William Willoughby Cole, 1st Earl of Enniskillen (1 March 1736&nda ...
, the Governor of the Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...
at the time. The initial estimated cost of the project at the time was £2,672 8s and 6d (equivalent to £10,300,000 or R220,000,000 in 2014) with an actual cost upon completion of £3,000 (equivalent to £11,580,000 or R256,000,000 in 2014). A toll-house was set-up on the top of mountain to offset the cost of the project to the Cape government collecting £490 in its first two years in addition to additional indirect tax revenue derived from increased use of port facilities and other tolls as a result of the increase in economic activity the pass created.
The pass remained unchanged until a railway line to Caledon that runs parallel to the road was built in 1902 and a level crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass
An overpass (called ...
halfway up the road's incline was built. The road remained narrow to the extent that vehicles could only pass each other at selected points on the pass. In the 1930s, the pass was widened and tarred; it was further improved in the 1956 when it was further widened. In 1984 the upper parts were widened to four lanes in a reinforced concrete construction at a cost of R4.5 million.
Gallery
File:South_Africa_Sir_Lowry_Pass_Construction_5.jpg, Road Bridge and Railway Line
File:South_Africa_Sir_Lowry_Pass_Construction_3.jpg, Soap Bubble Curve
File:South_Africa_Sir_Lowry_Pass_Construction_4.jpg, Looking down the incline
File:South_Africa_Sir_Lowry_Pass_Construction_1.jpg, Railway tunnel through the mountain
File:South_Africa_Sir_Lowry_Pass_Construction_2.jpg, Looking up from the railway station at the base
File:South_Africa_Sir_Lowry_Pass_120351987_3412553458787430_965305260041992728_o.jpg, Overview of the Railway Line
File:Sirlours_pass_tunnel.jpg, Overview of the Railway Line
References
{{Authority control
Mountain passes of the Western Cape
N2 road (South Africa)
Elgin, Western Cape