Bain's Passes

Queen's Road (Makhanda to Fort Beaufort)

AndrewDocumentedRoad

Built as a military road under Major Charles Selwyn of the Royal Engineers. Andrew Bain, a civilian attached to the Royal Engineers, was in charge of a working party when the road works began in 1837.

This is a road, not a pass. The Queen's Road is a long military road. The Ecca Pass is its best-known mountain section and has its own entry on this site. The pin is one approximate point roughly midway along the route, not the whole line.
R67(Ecca Pass section)Route
About 110 km(to Post Retief)Length
RoadType
—Surface

See it on the mapLog your drive

Before you go

Road conditions change with weather, floods, fires and roadworks. Check the latest conditions with the road authority or local tourism office before you leave, and carry offline maps.

About this road

Ordered by Acting Governor Sir Benjamin D'Urban after the 1834–35 frontier war to link the forts, the Queen's Road ran from Makhanda to Fort Beaufort and on to Post Retief, about 110 km. Sir George Napier named it the Queen's Road in 1839, and it is described as the first major highway in the Cape Colony. Andrew Bain, a civilian attached to the Royal Engineers under Major Selwyn, built the Ecca Pass section from 1837 and took up geology while working in its cuttings.

Later in 1835, after Piet Retief petitioned him, D'Urban agreed to extend the road to Post Retief, and Major Selwyn presented a map of the extension in June 1836. Bain joined the Royal Engineers under Selwyn in April 1837 as an assistant engineer on the Grahamstown to Fort Brown section. By 1840 to 1841 the road had reached the Koonap Heights, with sections cut through solid rock, and it was finished around 1842. The names Queen's Pass and Victoria Heights came later, and the original Ecca names were restored in the 20th century. Bain's road work uncovered Karoo fossils unknown to science: Oudenodon bainii, from Mildenhall farm south of Fort Beaufort, and the Blinkwater Monster (Pareiasaurus serridens). The original skull of the Blinkwater Monster was later lost in the British Museum, but casts survive in the Albany Museum, and Bain's original sketch is displayed in the Fort Beaufort Museum.

History

Built by
Built as a military road under Major Charles Selwyn of the Royal Engineers. Andrew Bain, a civilian attached to the Royal Engineers, was in charge of a working party when the road works began in 1837.
Built
Begun 1837. Named the Queen's Road in 1839. Completed about 1842 by one account; the 1964 monument text gives 1837–45.
Location
Makhanda (Grahamstown) to Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape; extended to Post Retief
Later work
Bypassed.The Heritage Portal says it carried all traffic between Makhanda and Fort Beaufort until 1962.
Notes
Start and end years differ: one source gives completion about 1842, the 1964 monument text gives 1837–45. The first of three major bridges on the road was the Victoria Bridge at Fort Beaufort, and the Fish River Bridge is also credited to the Queen's Road works; both have their own entries. The Fort Brown bridge over the Great Fish River on this road is credited by Makana Municipality to the engineer William Jervois, completed in 1848. The Fort Beaufort Museum page does not mention convicts or the Fish River Bridge, and mentions a planned Kat River bridge.

Find it

Pin
-32.95500, 26.62600
Approximate position
Pin is an approximate point roughly midway between Fort Brown and Fort Beaufort. A road cannot be shown by one point.
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Sources

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