Fort Selwyn

Grahamstown, South Africa, South Africa

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Fort Selwyn is a small historic fort located on Gunfire Hill at the southwestern edge of Grahamstown (now officially called Makhanda) in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

Built between 1835 and 1836 during the 6th Frontier War between British colonizers and the Xhosa people, the fort was constructed as part of Governor Sir Benjamin D'Urban's defense plan to protect the fortified barracks at the drostdy site and safeguard Grahamstown's approaches and vital water supply. It was named after Captain Charles Jasper Selwyn of the Cape Corps of Royal Engineers, who designed and commanded its construction while stationed in the Eastern Cape from 1834 to 1842.

The fort features a unique asymmetrical seven-pointed star masonry gun battery enclosing two double-storey barracks, a magazine, and an underground water tank, with two original cannons still in place. The Royal Artillery occupied Fort Selwyn from 1836 until 1862, and until September 1870 a nine-o'clock gun was fired daily from the fort to remind Grahamstown's civil servants to reach work.

It was briefly manned again during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 before falling into disrepair, then converted into a domestic residence and tea-garden in 1925, declared a national monument in 1936, restored during the 1970s as part of the 1820 Settler Monument scheme, and is now maintained as a museum managed by the Albany Museum. Today, the fort is dwarfed by the prominent 1820 Settlers Monument nearby and is opened to visitors only on request.