The Relocation of VOC-Era Bosheuvel Farm in the Liesbeeck River Valley, Cape Town: A Land Surveying Approach

The article reports on the relocation of Bosheuvel, the most southerly of the original farms granted by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) along the Liesbeeck River in Cape Town between 1657 and 1660. These are represented on Pieter Potter's general plans of 1658 and 1661. An original beacon that is still in use in the current cadastre is identified. This beacon is thought to be the oldest surviving cadastral beacon in South Africa and is worthy of heritage recognition. The alignment between this beacon and mountain features in the original choice of boundary directions, as well as other reconstructed boundaries and beacons of the farm, are speculative conclusions which cannot be verified without further spatial historical evidence coming to light. This contribution is significant in adding to the body of work on early settlement at the Cape and its spatial effects on the current city-scape. The addition of geo-spatial evidence and processing using land surveying methods of property relocation and mathematical beacon and boundary reconstruction bring geo-spatial rigour to locational information of historic farms at the Cape in the early Dutch period.