Aberdeen

Aberdeen sits on the plains below the Camdeboo Mountains, about 55 km south-west of Graaff-Reinet on the N9. Laid out in 1856 as a Dutch Reformed Church settlement on the farm Brakkefontein, it grew into a proper municipality by 1858. The early history goes back further than that — Ensign Shriver passed through in the late 1600s bartering with the Inqua Khoisan. What the settlers built, and what the dry Karoo air has preserved, is the reason people come here today.

The Dutch Reformed Church dominates the town square. Its steeple, at 50 metres, is the tallest in South Africa, and it leans slightly left when you approach from Graaff-Reinet — the weight of the roof tiles pulling at the wooden frame. Inside the church hall, 20 large panels made from sheep's wool, cloth, and hessian depict biblical scenes. In the grounds is an olive tree grown from a cutting taken in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is that kind of place.

The streets are lined with Victorian, Georgian, and Edwardian buildings — Carmen Villa, Pagel House, Villeria, De Denne among them — alongside Karoo cottages that have been there since the beginning. Aberdeen is a designated architectural conservation area, and it shows. Heritage walks take you through the main streets, and the town museum holds local history and some good fossil exhibits from the surrounding Karoo.

The surrounding district produces wool and mohair on a serious scale — one of the largest mohair-producing regions in the country. Aberdeen is quiet, unhurried, and honest. There is no pretence here. What you see is what the town has always been.