This cache was originally on the side of the highway near these ruins, but the highway upgrade has made it unsafe to stop there any more. The cache has been moved to a location where you can just still see the ruins but are much safer.
In 1850, Captain Samuel Horton offered the Wesleyan Church ￡1,000 and twenty acres of ground at his property, Somercotes, for the establishment of a boys’ college. The foundation stone was laid in January 1852, but mainly due to the Victorian goldrush creating a labour shortage, the building was not completed until 1855. The first students commenced in October 1855, and numbered seven by the end of that year. The college prospered and by 1862 the enrolment was 64, and the building was extended. Hundreds of boys were educated at the college, which operated much like the great public schools of England. Graduates included many prominent Tasmanians; doctors, barristers, clergymen and even one premier. By the 1890’s though, a depression was having a negative effect on enrolments, as were the many successful schools operating in Launceston and Hobart. Financial pressure caused the college to finally close in 1894, and the land was given back to the Somercotes property . The building sat unused for many years, and was eventually demolished and the materials reused elsewhere, in 1920. The magnificent arched entranceway is now all that remains.
Check out some of the photos in the gallery to see what it was like in it's prime.
The cache is an easy find - it is here for the history not for the challenge.