For comparability with other large cities around the world, Cape Town has been defined as the Cape Peninsula together with the northern suburbs from Bloubergstrand in the west to Durbanville and Kraaifontein in the east, the built-up areas of the Cape Flats and the Eersterivier-Somerset West area. This metropolitan region comprises the entire urban and semi-urban area administered by the recently enlarged City of Cape Town, excluding the predominantly rural areas in the north such as Atlantis and Mamre. Of the names of the 698 suburbs and neighbourhoods that have been identified to date in Greater Cape Town, 99 (14.2%) can be found in Scotland or are based on Scottish family names or Scottish words. Of course, some of the names are used in other parts of the British Isles as well, but at least 45 of these (6.5%) appear to have a direct or indirect connection with Scotland. However, several of these names are variations on a single name, for example the numerous suburbs with Brackenfell as part of their name or made-up names based on Bellville.
Suburbs and neighbourhoods with names that occur only in Scotland and not elsewhere in the British Isles, and/or are definitely or most probably of Scottish origin are:
- Airlie (Aberdeenshire and Angus).
- Balvenie (Moray). Balvenie gave its name to a well-known malt whisky - see illustration.
- Bellville and Bellville South - these suburbs were named after Charles Davidson Bell, Surveyor-General of the Cape from 1848 to 1872. The following account of Bell was given in the Friends of the Michaelis Collection, Past Newsletter 29, September 2000: "Charles Davidson Bell (1813-1882) arrived from Scotland in 1833 and rose to become the Cape's Surveyor-General 1848-72. Bell was a prolific artist in many mediums. His best-known painting is 'The Landing of Jan van Riebeeck', but he also became famous for his design of the Cape triangular postage stamp."
- Belrail and Bosbell - The names of these suburbs owe their origin indirectly to Charles Davidson Bell (see Bellville above). In the case of Belrail, the name reflected the practice of the former colonial Railway Authorities of naming railway property after the suburb near which it is located together with the word 'rail' (see Humerail in the Rampant Scotland article on Port Elizabeth as another example involving a Scottish surname). Bosbell appears to be a name that was made up from two adjoining suburbs, Boston and Bellville.
- Bonnie Brook - this appears to be a made-up name since it does not occur in Scotland. The element 'bonnie', meaning 'pleasant-looking', is a Scots word.
- Brackenfell, Brackenfell Industrial, Brackenfell North, Brackenfell South and Bracken Heights - According to Raper (1989), these suburbs were named after the farm Brackenfell, which George Henry Walton bought in 1901 and "named thus because he was reminded of Scotland."
- Clunie (Aberdeenshire and Perth & Kinross).
- Crawford (South Lanarkshire; also Crawfordton, Crawfordton Burn and Crawfordton Hill (Dumfries & Galloway), Crawford Hill (East Ayrshire), Crawforddyke and Crawfordjohn (South Lanarkshire) and Crawfordston (South Ayrshire). There are also a few places in northern England and Northern Ireland with Crawford as part of the name, probably having been taken there by Scottish settlers. Crawford (sometimes spelt Crauford) is a Lowland Scottish name. The name goes back to at least the 13th century. William Wallace's mother is believed to have been the daughter of Sir Hugh Crawford, Sheriff of Ayr. It is interesting to note that most of the streets in Crawford have an Australian theme, with many being named for main roads in Melbourne's inner suburbs, including the Scottish names Glenferrie and St Kilda. For the record, the other streets in Crawford that clearly recall Melbourne are Burnley Road, Burwood Road, Camberwell Road, Melbourne Road, Riversdale Road and possibly Taronga Road (Tooronga Road in Melbourne).
- Crofters Valley - this name does not occur in Scotland or other parts of the British Isles but it has a Scottish connotation. The Collins Gem Scots Dictionary defines a croft as "a small enclosed plot of land, adjoining a house, worked by the occupier and his family." Crofting is a term that is generally restricted to the Highlands of Scotland and originated in the eighteenth century but has been applied to similar land occupancy in the west of Ireland as well. 'Croft' also occurs widely as an element in English place names, in the sense of a small enclosure.
- Dunoon (Argyll & Bute). The name of this Cape Town suburb is often spelled Du Noon, however, which raises a question mark as to whether its origin is truly Scottish. The illustration is of the town Dunoon in Argyll & Bute.
- Dunrobin (Dunrobin Castle, Glen, Head and Wood in Highland). Dunrobin Castle is the home of the Duke of Sutherland.
- Durbell - As in the case of Bosbell (see above), the name of this suburb is partly attributable to Charles Davidson Bell, being made up from the names of the adjoining suburbs (formerly municipalities in their own right) of Durbanville and Bellville.
- Eagles Nest (Scottish Borders).
- Faery Knowe - there is no known place in Scotland with this name but the words suggest a Scottish origin, a 'knowe' being a small, rounded hill in Scotland.
- Ferness (Moray).
- Forbes Lincoln - there is a Forbes Villa and Forbestown in Aberdeenshire and a Forbes Place in Inverclyde. Forbes is an old Scottish family name, adopted from a place name in Aberdeenshire - that's the Dress Forbes tartan shown here. The Lincoln part of the name would have an English derivation, e.g. the cathedral city in Lincolnshire.
- Glen Dirk - this is an intriguing name. It would have a Scottish origin if the intended meaning is 'valley of the stabbing knife'. Dirk, however, is also a Dutch and Afrikaans personal name, suggesting the meaning of 'Dirk's valley'.
- Glencairn and Glencairn Heights - Villages called Glencairn are found in Aberdeenshire and Highland. Glencairn is also the name of a district in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a city in which many Scottish place names can be found.
- Glen Marine and Glen Ridge - since these suburbs are immediately adjacent to Glencairn, it is a reasonable assumption that their names were inspired, in part, by that of Glencairn itself.
- Glenwood (Aberdeenshire).
- Gordon's Bay (Gordon in the Scottish Borders as well as many other places throughout Scotland with Gordon as part of the name, e.g. Gordonstoun, Gordonstown and Gordonsburgh). Gordon is also the name of a place on the Isle of Man, probably having been taken there by Scottish settlers. This coastal resort, which was recently absorbed into Greater Cape Town, was named after Colonel Robert Jakob Gordon (1743-1795) who arrived at the Cape in 1777 and who later took charge of the garrison. Judging by his name, this Dutch traveller and soldier presumably had some Scottish ancestry - perhaps with a link to the famous Gordon Highlanders; that's the crest of the army regiment shown here.
- Green Point (Shetland Islands). Known to the Portuguese as Ponta da Praia ('beach end' or 'beachpoint'), it was named Green Point in 1675, "making it the second oldest English place name in South Africa (Chapman's Peak is said to be the oldest)." (Raper, 1989). Although the name occurs only in Scotland, and not elsewhere in the British Isles, it is unlikely to be of Scottish origin and more likely to be a purely descriptive name.
- Highlands Estate - a reference, perhaps, to the Highlands of Scotland.
- Kaymor - there is no trace of any place in Scotland with this name. Kay is nevertheless a Scottish family name, a sept of Clan Davidson. Mór is a Gaelic word meaning 'big' or 'great'.
- Lochiel - the name of this suburb no doubt recalls the legendary historical figure of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel (1629-1719), described by Macaulay as the "Ulysses of the Highlands" and who features in Sir Walter Scott's romance "Lady of the Lake". Sir Ewen's grandson Donald was known as "the gentle Lochiel" and is regarded as one of the noblest of all the Highland chiefs. He was persuaded, through loyalty to the crown and the persuasive words of Prince Charles Edward Stewart, to support the 1745 Jacobite Uprising. It is said that if Cameron of Lochiel had not agreed to participate, the rising might never have got off the ground, such was his influence. In the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh his likeness stands beside Bonnie Prince Charlie (see illustration).
- Lotus River - there is a village called Lotus and a Lotus Hill in Dumfries & Galloway, the only occurrence of this name anywhere in the British Isles.
- Maitland and Maitland Garden Village - there is a place called Maitland in South Ayrshire. According to Laidler (1952) these suburbs were named for Sir Peregrine Maitland, Governor of the Cape between 1844 and 1847. Prior to his appointment at the Cape, Sir Peregrine had served with distinction at the Battle of Waterloo, was made Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada in 1818, followed by Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia (1828-1834) and Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army in India (1836-1838). Maitland is a Lowland Scottish family name.
- Murdoch Valley - there is a Murdoch Head in Aberdeenshire and Murdochcairnie in Fife. Murdoch is a Scottish family name, associated with Clans MacDonald and MacPherson.
- Rosebank (Angus, Scottish Borders, City of Edinburgh, Dumfries & Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, Fife, Highland, Moray, Orkney Islands, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian). The name also occurs in Devon, England but is far more Scottish than English.
- Russels Rest - there is a place in Highland called Russel. Russel is probably an alternative spelling of Russell, a Scottish (and English) name of Norman origin.
- Schotsche Kloof - Nestled in a nook at the foot of Signal Hill to the immediate west of the CBD, adjacent to the colourful 'Malay Quarter', this is a very old suburb by South African standards. The name means "Scottish ravine" in Cape Dutch and according to Laidler (1952) the suburb was originally a farmstead. On an early British map of Cape Town, soon after the second and final British occupation of the Cape in 1806, the farm was recorded as "Scotch Kloof" and was one of only a handful of vaguely "English" looking names on the entire map, surrounded by Dutch names.
- Seaforth (Western Isles). It is very likely that the name of this coastal suburb near Simonstown on False Bay refers to the Seaforth Highlanders (that's their crest shown here) who landed in the area in 1795 under the command of Commodore Elphinstone and Major-General Craig. Simonstown was captured from the Dutch, with Cape Town itself being taken into 'protective custody' a few weeks later, in a move to prevent the Cape from falling under French control. Alternatively, the suburb may have been named for Seaforth in Liverpool, in which event its origin would still be Scottish since the Merseyside suburb was named for Seaforth House, the home of the Scottish merchant Sir John Gladstone (1764-1851), who was the father of Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone.
- Silversands - there is a Silversands Bay in Fife to the east of Aberdour on the Firth of Forth.
- St Kilda (Western Isles). According to the Penguin Dictionary of British Place Names (2003) the name of this remote island derives from an Old Norse word 'skildar' meaning 'shields', creating a bogus 'saint' in the process of its anglicisation.
- The Glen (Aberdeenshire, Scottish Borders, East Lothian, North Ayrshire and Western Isles). The name also occurs in Cumbria, Northumberland and West Yorkshire however. Glen is, of course, a Scots word, derived from the Gaelic 'gleann' meaning 'valley'. Since this locality is located in the Glencairn area (see Glencairn above), it is a reasonable assumption that the name has a Scottish origin.
- Wallacedene - there are many places in Scotland based on the Scottish surname of Wallace, examples being Wallaceton in Dumfries & Galloway, Wallacetown in South Ayrshire and Wallacestone in Falkirk. One of Scotland's most famous Wallaces is Sir William Wallace, the thirteenth century patriot who championed Scotland's independence when this was being threatened by King Edward I of England's expansionist policy. Wallace means 'Welshman', a Saxon term for 'foreigner' that was applied by the Saxons to the descendants of the Celtic-speaking Ancient Britons in Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria and Strathclyde.
Other suburbs and neighbourhoods with names that can be found in Scotland but that are not unique to Scotland and are therefore far less likely to have a Scottish connection are:
- Austinville - there is an Austincroft in Highland but also Austin's Bridge in Devon, England.
- Avondale (Shetland Islands) also in England and Ireland. This suburb may have been named in honour of the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, eldest son of King Edward VII.
- Belmont Park - Belmont is found in the Scottish Borders, Shetland Islands and South Ayrshire. It occurs even more frequently in England and is also found in Ireland and Wales. Belmont was an extremely popular choice of name in all English-speaking countries during the nineteenth century. Its origin is ultimately French - 'beautiful mountain'.
- Belvedere (West Lothian) and Belvedere Noordhoek by association; Belvedere is also found in England, most famously in London, and there is also the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, Austria.
- Bishopscourt (Aberdeen City) also in England, Ireland and the Isle of Man. The Cape Town suburb derives its name from the residence of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, which indicates a link with England rather than Scotland. Many of the streets and avenues in this suburb are named for British cathedral cities, the Scottish representatives being Dunkeld Avenue and Edinburgh Drive.
- Blackheath (Highland) but more commonly used in England.
- Church Hill Estate (there is a mountain in Highland called Church Hill) but Church Hill is far more commonly found throughout England and to a lesser extent in Ireland and Wales.
- Claremont (Fife; also Claremont Gardens in Edinburgh) but places with Claremont as an element in the name are fairly common in England as well and County Clare in Ireland could be another source for the name.
- Clarks Township - there is a Clark Fell in Dumfries & Galloway, but Clark occurs more frequently as an element in English place names.
- Clifton (Scottish Borders, Orkney Islands and Stirling) but the name is used in many English counties.
- Crossroads (Aberdeenshire, Fife and East Ayrshire). It is highly unlikely that this suburb near the airport was named for Scotland since it developed as a squatter camp around a major crossroads.
- Fairfield Estate (Fairfield in Clackmannanshire, Shetland Islands and Stirling) even more commonly found throughout England and is also found in Ireland
- Florida Estate (Florida in the Scottish Borders) but the name of this Cape Town suburb is more probably derived from America, or the Johannesburg suburb of the same name.
- Frogmore Estate (Frogmore in Aberdeenshire) but Frogmore is a very common place name throughout southern England and is also found in Ireland.
- Gill Cape - the element 'gill' occurs in several Scottish place names, including places simply called 'Gill' in Dumfries & Galloway, South Lanarkshire the Orkney Islands. The name occurs even more frequently in England, however, especially in the north.
- Glen Valley and Glenhaven - there are places simply called Glen in Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands, as well as two places in Ireland. In addition, there are hundreds of places in both Scotland and Ireland and a few in England and Wales with Glen as an element in the name. Glen means 'valley' in Gaelic. If the intention was indeed to give the suburb of Glen Valley a Scottish sounding name, then the result is clearly a tautology, analogous to the numerous places called Glendale in North American cities. The "Glen" illustrated here is Glen Croe, seen from "Rest-and-be-Thankful" at the top of the glen.
- Glen View (Argyll & Bute, spelt Glenview) but there is a Glen View in Devon, England and also a luxury 4-star hotel in County Wicklow, Ireland called Glenview.
- Grahamdale - there are many places in central and southern Scotland beginning with Graham from the surname, including the village of Grahamston in Falkirk. There are also two places just over the border in Northumberland (Graham's Cleugh) and Cumbria (Graham's Onset) but Graham is definitely an ancient Scottish name of Anglo-Norman origin, derived from Old English graeham (greyhome). The most famous bearer of the name was the brilliant soldier James Graham, the 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612-50). Of course, it is possible that the name of this Cape Town suburb may refer to a Christian name, which could reduce the likelihood of a link with Scotland.
- Hatton (Aberdeenshire, Angus, Fife, Moray, Perth & Kinross and Renfrewshire) also in six English counties.
- Hazelwood Park - there is a village called Hazelwood in Moray, but the name occurs far more frequently in England, including the London suburb.
- Heathfield (Aberdeenshire, Dumfries & Galloway, Highland, Orkney Islands, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire) also all over England and is found in Ireland as well.
- Highgate (Dumfries & Galloway and North Ayrshire) but far more commonly found in both England and Wales.
- Kingston (Angus, East Lothian, City of Glasgow and Moray) also in England, Ireland and Wales. The illustration above is of the Kingston Bridge across the river Clyde in Glasgow.
- Mansfield (East Ayrshire, Fife, Inverclyde, Midlothian and Stirling) also in Nottinghamshire, England.
- Marlow (Orkney Islands) also in England.
- Millers Point - there is a Millerhill in Midlothian plus numerous other places in Scotland with Miller as an element in the name, but this is also the case in England.
- Mitchells Plain - there is a Mitchell Hall in East Lothian, a Mitchell Hill in Dumfries & Galloway and the Scottish Borders, Mitchellhill in Aberdeenshire and Mitchellslacks in Dumfries & Galloway, but place names based on Mitchell are even more numerous throughout England, including Mitchell itself in Cornwall. The name Mitchell is found frequently enough in Scotland, however, for there to be a family tartan - seen here. Whether or not the name of this suburb can be regarded as Scottish would depend on the ethnic background of the Mitchell concerned.
- Montague (Perth & Kinross) and Montague Gardens and Montagu's Gift by association but Montague is also found in East Sussex, England. It is probable that Montagu's Gift honours John Montagu, the Cape Colonial Secretary between 1843 and 1853; it is not known whether his ancestry was Scottish.
- Newlands (Aberdeenshire, Angus, City of Glasgow, Dumfries & Galloway, East and South Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Highland, Moray, Perth & Kinross, and Scottish Borders) also found throughout England. The Cape Town suburb's name is a translation of the Dutch 'Nieuweland', one of the oldest European place names in South Africa.
- Northgate (Aberdeenshire) also in four English counties.
- Norwood (Dumfries & Galloway) although much more likely to have been named for the suburb in south London or other places in England, or even the suburb in Johannesburg.
- Porter Estate - there is a Porterstown in both Aberdeenshire and Dumfries & Galloway, Porterfield in Renfrewshire, Porterhall in South Lanarkshire and Porterside in West Lothian. Places with Porter as part of the name are even more commonly found throughout England.
- Primrose Park - there is a Primrose in Fife, but the name occurs more widely in England.
- Red Hill (Aberdeenshire) also all over England.
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- Scott Estate, Scottsdale, Scottsdene and Scottsville - the names of these suburbs are not necessarily Scottish. According to Black (1996), the authority on Scottish family names, there are more people with this Border Scottish surname in Northumberland than in the whole of Scotland. There are several places in England with Scott as part of the name. Scottsdale, for instance, is the name of a place in Somerset.
- Southfield (Aberdeenshire, Scottish Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, Falkirk, Fife, Midlothian, Orkney Islands, Perth & Kinross and Stirling) also commonly found in England and in at least one Welsh county.
- Springfield (Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife, Highland and Perth & Kinross) also in England and Wales. Springfield is a very common name in the USA as well.
- Strand (Shetland Islands and South Lanarkshire; also The Strand in Argyll & Bute and Strandhead in South Ayrshire) but the name occurs even more commonly in England, including The Strand in central London. The origin of the name of this False Bay resort is most probably Cape Dutch, "strand" being the Dutch and Afrikaans (as well as the Old English) word for a 'beach'. The original name of this community was 'Somerset Strand', i.e. 'the beach at Somerset (West)'.
- St Vincent (Highland) also in Lincolnshire, England.
- Summerville (Dumfries & Galloway) also across the border in Northumberland.
- Sunnyside (Aberdeenshire, City of Glasgow, Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Fife, Perth & Kinross, North Ayrshire, Orkney Islands, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire) also in England but not as commonly as in Scotland which probably says something about the premium placed on sunshine in Scotland!
- Thornton (Angus, East Lothian, Fife, Midlothian, Moray, Perth & Kinross and South Lanarkshire; also Thornton Burn in East Lothian, Thornton Hill in Perth & Kinross, Thornton Wood in Fife, Thorntonhall in South Lanarkshire and Thorntonloch in East Lothian). Thornton is far more commonly used as a place name throughout England and is also found in Ireland and Wales.
- Townsend Acres and Townsend Estate (Townsend in Orkney Islands) but more common in England and is also found in Wales.
- Woodlands (Aberdeenshire, Argyll & Bute, Borders, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife, Highland, Perth & Kinross and South Lanarkshire) also all over England and is found in Ireland and Wales as well. There are two suburbs with this name in the City of Cape Town, one on the southern Cape Peninsula and the other in Mitchell's Plain.
- Woodstock (Orkney Islands) also in England and Wales. Originally called Papendorp, the name of this well-known suburb of Cape Town was changed during the 19th century to the name of the local hotel. The origin of the hotel's name has not been recorded, but it is possible that it honours one of Sir Walter Scott's novels by that name even though "Woodstock" was one of his less successful works.
Everglen, Glen Ive, Glen Lily, Oakglen and Sunset Glen also have a mild "Scottish ring" to them, but have not yet been established as Scottish in origin. These are probably made-up names, the word 'glen' (from the Gaelic gleann) having become a descriptive term for a valley that is now used quite commonly in Standard English.
Further evidence of direct and indirect Scottish influences on the development of South Africa's legislative capital city can be found in the names of topographical features within the metropolitan area:
- Cape Maclear (a promontory at the tip of the Cape Peninsula, near the Cape of Good Hope). Named after Sir Thomas Maclear, the Royal Astronomer at Cape Colony during the nineteenth century.
- Finlay's Point (a promontory south of Simonstown on False Bay).
- Glen Beach (the northern end of the beach at Camps Bay).
- Hely-Hutchinson Reservoir (a reservoir behind Table Mountain). Presumably named after Sir Walter F Hely-Hutchinson (1849-1913), Governor of the Cape Colony from 1901 to 1910.
- Logie's Rock and Logie's Bay (a rock and bay north of Llandudno on the Cape Peninsula).
- Mackellar's Bay (a bay near Cape Point on False Bay, also known as Buffelsbaai).
- Maclear Beach (the narrow beach at the Cape of Good Hope). Presumably named for Sir Thomas Maclear (see Cape Maclear and Maclear's Beacon).
- Maclear's Beacon (the highest point on Table Mountain). Table Mountain's highest point at Maclear's Beacon is 1,086 metres (3,563 feet) above sea level. This point is named for a stone cairn that was built there in 1865 by Sir Thomas Maclear who conducted a trigonometrical survey of Table Mountain.
- Minto Hill (hillock on Robben Island on which a lighthouse is situated).
- Murray's Bay (a bay on Robben Island, the island on which Nelson Mandela was imprisoned). According to Raper (1989), this bay was named after John Murray who had a whaling-station there from 1806 to 1820.
Although Maclear and Hutchinson are both Scottish family names, the individuals after whom the topographical features were named were in fact Irishmen. Sir Thomas Maclear was born in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 1794 while Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson was the son of the 4th Earl of Donoughmore, an Irish peer. The origins of these place names are therefore more properly 'Scots-Irish' than Scottish as such, i.e., names associated with Northern Ireland as a result of the Scottish Presbyterian plantations of the seventeenth century.
The Scottish influence on place names in Cape Town, whilst certainly evident, is not as marked as in many Australian and Canadian cities. This is mainly because of the preponderance of names that are of Dutch or Afrikaans origin, followed by names from England and an increasing number of Xhosa names. Cape Town's history goes back to 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established a small colony, under the command of Jan van Riebeeck, to provide fresh meat, vegetables and water for crew travelling between Europe and what is today Indonesia. Because of its strategic importance during the Napoleonic wars to British interests in the East, the Cape became a British colony from 1806. It remained a Crown Colony until the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. Scottish influences on the development of South Africa's second most important city occurred mainly, but not exclusively, during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
One of the earliest British residents in Cape Town was a Scotswoman, Lady Anne Barnard (1750-1825), the eldest daughter of the fifth Earl of Balcarres and wife of the Colonial Secretary at the Cape. It is thanks to her letters that much is known about daily life during the first British Occupation of the Cape from 1795 to 1803.
Acknowledgments:
© Ian Kendall
If you wish to contact Ian about his research, his e-mail address is ian.kendall1@bigpond.com.
Melbourne, Australia, February 2006
