About Dundee

Dundee, Battlefields

Visitors that are staying overnight are spoilt for choice with accommodation in Dundee, which is a pretty retreat in the battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal. The pretty little town of Dundee, which has managed to retain much of its aesthetic rustic appeal, lies in the valley of the magnificent Biggarsberg Mountain range some 325 kilometres from Durban and only 30 minutes' drive from the neighbouring towns of Ladysmith and Newcastle.

Dundee was originally a farm owned by a Scotsman who named it after his hometown. After he floated his Dundee Coal Company on the London Stock Exchange in 1899, the town became a boomtown giving rise to beautiful, graceful homes, a theatre - the first north of Port Natal, and, because Dundee was the meeting place of seven roads leading inland and to the coast, it was to enjoy popularity for some time. British forces in Natal were concentrated at Dundee and Ladysmith, making it one of the highlights of the Battlefields Route, which gives Dundee a distinct sense of history.

The first shots of the Boer War were fired at Talana on a hill just outside Dundee where today the Talana Museum is set in a 20 acre heritage park, which opened its doors in 1979 to commemorate the Anglo Zulu war and also gives the history of coal mining in Dundee.

Agriculture, mainly sheep, dairy and crop farming, is now the main form of livelihood, as opposed to the early days of coal, and a number of artists and crafts people have made this part of the world their home. Walkers and birders alike enjoy the pockets of nature in the hills and valleys beyond Dundee.