Pilgrim's Rest
An Alluvial Gold Rush Town Of 1873 Declared A National Monument In Its Entirety, With Corrugated Iron Shops And Houses Kept As They Were, The Royal Hotel Still Taking Guests, The Diggings In The Creek Where The Gold Was Panned, And A Cemetery On The Hill Where Every Grave But One Faces The Wrong Way For Reasons Nobody Has Settled · Pilgrim's Rest, Mpumalanga
Alluvial gold was found in this creek in 1873, a camp of diggers grew up along it, and when the easy gold ran out the town simply stopped rather than being pulled down. In 1986 the whole of it was declared a national monument, which means a street of corrugated-iron shops and houses from the 1870s and after still stands as it was, with the Royal Hotel still taking guests behind its iron verandah. You can walk into the diggings where the gold was panned, look at a printing works and a general dealer kept as working museums, and climb to a cemetery on the hill where every grave but one faces the wrong way and nobody has settled why. The row should say plainly that a wholly preserved village can feel staged, and that which museum buildings are open varies - the town has had long periods of neglect and dispute over its management. It is twenty minutes off the Panorama Route and malaria-free.
In a valley off the R533 twenty minutes west of Graskop, on the Panorama Route, Pilgrim's Rest, Mpumalanga, South Africa
The village is open ground and free to walk at any hour, with the museum buildings - the printing works, the general dealer, the house museum and the diggings - keeping daylight hours on individual or combined tickets. WHICH BUILDINGS ARE OPEN VARIES, and the town has been through long periods of neglect and dispute over its management, so ask at the information office on arrival rather than planning around a list. The Royal Hotel takes guests and serves food. The cemetery on the hill above is open ground reached on a steep track. Shops and restaurants along the street keep daylight hours and several close on Mondays. Pilgrim's Rest is twenty minutes west of Graskop off the R533, on the Panorama Route, ninety minutes from a Kruger gate, and is MALARIA-FREE at this altitude.