Qualla: Knysna Fort https://qualla.com/knysna-fort en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Knysna Fort https://qualla.com/knysna-fort Knysna Fort: Introduction https://qualla.com/knysna-fort/ They called the hill Verdompskop. The name, roughly translated from Afrikaans, is unprintable in polite company -- but it captured the sentiment of the Knysna townspeople who watched Major William A. Thomson order a fort built atop it during the Second Boer War. The fort was supposed to defend Knysna from Boer commandos. No attack ever came. The fortification earned the nickname Thomson's Folly, and the major earned a place in local folklore as a man who mistook mule drivers for an invading army.

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]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/9/b/q/knysna-fort-wp/k9bq-knysna-fort-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Knysna Fort: A War Reaches the Lagoon https://qualla.com/knysna-fort/ The Second Boer War, fought between the British Empire and the Boer republics from 1899 to 1902, reached deep into the Cape Colony. When a Boer commando attacked the inland town of Willowmore, Major Thomson -- commanding the Knysna Town Guard -- decided his coastal town needed fo...

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]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/9/b/q/knysna-fort-wp/k9bq-knysna-fort-a-war-reaches-the-lagoon.mp3 0:06 2 full Knysna Fort: Mule Drivers at the Bridge https://qualla.com/knysna-fort/ The fort's finest hour was also its most absurd. On February 27, a group of men was spotted approaching the Knysna bridge. Thomson mobilized the Town Guard in less than thirty minutes -- an impressive response time for a volunteer militia in a small lagoon town. The approaching f...

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]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/9/b/q/knysna-fort-wp/k9bq-knysna-fort-mule-drivers-at-the-bridge.mp3 0:06 3 full Knysna Fort: Suspicion and Wartime Nerves https://qualla.com/knysna-fort/ War brings out both courage and paranoia, and Knysna got a heavy dose of the latter. Thomson detained a number of residents he considered suspicious -- including a Dutch Reformed Church minister and others with Dutch-sounding surnames. The detentions were carried out on false pre...

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]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/9/b/q/knysna-fort-wp/k9bq-knysna-fort-suspicion-and-wartime-nerves.mp3 0:06 4 full Knysna Fort: What Remains on the Hill https://qualla.com/knysna-fort/ The Knysna Town Guard was formally dissolved in 1902 when the war ended. The fort on Verdompskop never saw combat, never repelled an assault, never justified its construction through any test of arms. But it endures -- as a historical curiosity, a lesson in wartime anxiety, and a...

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]]> Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/9/b/q/knysna-fort-wp/k9bq-knysna-fort-what-remains-on-the-hill.mp3 0:06 5 full