Craighall is a suburb of

Randburg Randburg is an area located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly a separate municipality, its administration devolved to the newly created City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, along with neighbouring Sandton and Roodepoort ...

, South Africa and is bordered by Hyde Park,

Dunkeld Dunkeld (, , from , "fort of the Caledonians") is a town in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The location of a historic cathedral, it lies on the north bank of the River Tay, opposite Birnam. Dunkeld lies close to the geological Highland Boundar ...

and Parkhurst. It sits in between the busy arterial routes of

Jan Smuts Avenue Jan Smuts Avenue is a major street in Johannesburg, South Africa. It begins in Randburg, and passes through important business areas like Rosebank. It passes the Johannesburg Zoo, Zoo Lake and Wits University before becoming Bertha Street, and ...

and Winnie Mandela Drive and is located in Region B of the

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality () is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite se ...

History

Craighall was established in 1902 by the

Scot Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or ...

, William Rattray, the owner of a large farm, ''Klipfontein'', which at the time was an hour's journey by horse-carriage to the north of the bustling mining town of Johannesburg. He divided the farm into a

residential A residential area is a land used in which houses, housing predominates, as opposed to industrial district, industrial and Commercial Area, commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include ...

development, which he named Craighall after his birthplace in Blairgowrie,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, and a recreational development of lakes and parkland, much of which still exists as the open land of

Delta Park Delta Park is a public municipal park complex in north Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Delta Park is composed of two distinct sections referred to as East and West Delta Park. The Owens Sports Complex is a notable attraction of East Del ...

. Craighall was an attractive, fertile piece of land on a gentle west/north facing slope. The main natural feature of Craighall is the cascading rocky

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

on the

Braamfontein Spruit The Braamfontein Spruit (from the Afrikaans for "spring of brambles") is the longest stream in Johannesburg, South Africa. It originates in Barnato Park High School, Braamfontein. It is covered and canalised near its source, but once the river r ...

at the north-west corner of the suburb. It flows year-round but becomes a particularly dramatic spectacle during heavy rain-storms. Waterfall Avenue, the original centre-piece avenue of the suburb, was named after it. Craighall was originally planned with erven (stand) sizes at just under an

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

(3,850 square metres, known as a "Craighall Acre"), although more than half have since been sub-divided into smaller stand sizes. It remains a spacious, treed residential suburb with abundant bird-life, yet located within 6 minutes drive of

Sandton Sandton is a financial, commercial and residential area, located in the northern part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Formerly an independent municipality, Sandton's name came from the combination of two of its suburbs, Sa ...

References

Johannesburg Region B {{Johannesburg-stub