The Lonehill

Koppie An inselberg or monadnock ( ) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa, a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an ...

is a hill located in the suburb named after it,

Lone Hill Lone Hill is a suburb north of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in Region E. Lone Hill is in the Gauteng province and is a suburb in Sandton Sandton is a financial, commercial and residential area, located in the northern part of th ...

, which is located in

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is notable for the legends that surround the large boulder that sits atop the hill, precariously balanced on several other boulders.

Legend

The first legend is that if the top

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

of the Lonehill

were dislodged, all the whites in the country would leave. It's a latter-day version of an Anglo

Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...

tale: that if the Boers dislodged the rock, the British would lose the war and leave

. A more recent legend is on how the Lonehill Nature Reserve was proclaimed a reserve. The motivation was centered around a rumour that a foreign individual was in the process of buying the area around the koppie, with the intent to remove the topmost rock. Local residents banded together and established the area as a nature reserve to prevent anyone from disturbing the well-known landmark.

Description

The Lonehill Koppie stands out as a lone koppie on the northern border of the city's suburbs, 28 km north of the city centre, and is a reminder of what Johannesburg looked like before it was settled. It is a rocky veld with small streams trickling, dotted with shrubs, small trees and knee-high grasses.

Guinea fowl Guinea fowl () (or guineahen) are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetics, Phylogenetically, they branched off from the core Galliforme ...

and

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp Spine (zoology), spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New ...

s used to roam the area, and it is now populated with hundreds of dassies. There's a small dam, called Lonehill Loch, around 200 metres to its north, which is a popular walking spot for local residents. The Koppie is largely made up of large, very old boulders, called

tor Tor, TOR or ToR may refer to: Places * Toronto, Canada ** Toronto Raptors * Tor, Pallars, a village in Spain * Tor, former name of Sloviansk, Ukraine, a city * Mount Tor, Tasmania, Australia, an extinct volcano * Tor Bay, Devon, England * Tor ...

rocks, with trees and indigenous

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s now almost obscuring the rocks except for the topmost boulders. These days it is surrounded by clusters of homes and developments in what is now the suburb of

. The koppie itself is located on a plot of around 20 acres, surrounded by

veld Veld ( or , Afrikaans language, Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch: ''veld'', field), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide-open, rural landscape in Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrubland, scrub, ...

, which is around 80 metres high known as Lonehill Loch. It is unlocked only on weekends, allowing hikers and picnickers to climb to the top, or just lay out a

picnic A picnic is a meal taken outdoors (Al fresco dining, ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event su ...

blanket in its surrounding grassy area.Lonehill - Seeff Properties
. The veld contains three

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

furnaces. These were excavated in the 1960s by Professor Revil Mason, formerly head of archaeology at

Wits University The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in ...

. The furnaces were hidden by Mason, to protect them, because they would need a protective structure built around them and there was no funding to develop the site. Mason estimated that the furnaces date to around 1600, the same period as the

Melville Koppies Melville Koppies is a nature reserve and a Johannesburg City Heritage Site in Johannesburg, South Africa. The word 'koppie' means small hill. Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the C ...

furnace. Bits of

slag The general term slag may be a by-product or co-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and recycled metals depending on the type of material being produced. Slag is mainly a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. Broadly, it can be c ...

were found near the furnaces, on large flat rocks with indentations in them that were used for grinding. Near the furnace site is another area where

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

was manufactured, fenced like the furnace area. Half-way up the Koppie there are remnants of stone walls that would have been a

kraal Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an pen (enclosure), enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African Human settlement ...

and living areas.

References

{{coord missing, South Africa Hills of South Africa