Introduction
As there is no safe parking on the M3 freeway acess to the cache requires either a hike or a mountain bike ride of 7 km (out and back) from the nearest parking spots (indicated on the map). Most of the route to the cache is along jeep and fire tracks. The final 250 meters from the jeep track to the blockhouse is indistinct and rough. The ruins are in fairly dense scrub.
The cache is a camo-taped 20cm long PVC pipe with a welded cap on one end and a labeled twist-off cap at the other. The log is in a water-tight container inside the PVC pipe.
A nocturnal visit to this rather isolated site is not recommended.
At the cache site the remains of the Prince of Wales redoubt built in 1795 can be seen. This includes the base of what was a three story masonry tower, a substantial semi-circular artillery platform (with an ancient canon), and some now derelict post-1925 military buildings.
Left -- base of original masonry tower; Centre -- post 1925 building; Right -- original masonry artillery platform
History
The Prince of Wales Battery was constructed during the first British occupation of the Cape, in the 1790s, to guard the south-eastern landward approaches to Cape Town. Captain George Bridges of the Royal Engineers drew the plans and supervised the construction of the battery, while re-vamping of the entire fortification system in the greater Cape Town area.
The Prince of Wales Battery was a vital part of the new British defensive system to shore up the city’s over-exposed landward approaches from the southeast. It was one of three blockhouses that were built on the slopes of the Devil’s Peak: the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the King’s. The Prince of Wales Battery was located on the lowest level, on the south-eastern side of the peak’s slope. Each of the batteries was identical in their design and nearly identical in size. Each battery consisted of a blockhouse fronted by a semi-circular artillery platform.
The remnant of the blockhouse tower below Devil's Peak
Portion of the original artillery platform
The blockhouses were of a novel design, heavily influenced by that of Martello towers, recently ‘discovered’ by British engineers. Martello towers were traditional Genoese batteries of a round construction that came to the attention of the British royal engineers in 1794 in Corsica, when British forces had an extremely difficult time taking the Tower of Mortella (so leading to the name ‘Martello’). The design of the tower at the Prince of Wales Battery is influenced by that of a Martello tower. Unlike a round Martello, this tower has the square form of a conventional 18th Century British blockhouse. However, like a Martello, it was composed of thick masonry walls and had three floors with rooms designated for powder magazines, storerooms, officers’ and soldiers’ quarters, as well as cisterns and storage areas for food; fireplaces were built into the walls to facilitate cooking and heating, while the upper floor was accessed by a ladder. The slotted external walls of the lower levels allowed the blockhouse to be defended by musket fire, while the top floor could host heavy artillery pieces.
The Prince of Wales Tower could host a compliment of as many as 24 men to endure sieges of considerable length. It was ‘self-contained’, with supplies of food, water and ammunition, while the thick walls protected it from both enemy fire and harsh weather. The tower was fronted by a small crescent-shaped battery platform, providing an isolated location guarding what was previously a ‘blind spot’ in Cape Town’s defences.
Today only the foundations of the Prince of Wales Battery remain. However, the blockhouse of the King’s Battery survives largely intact to the present day, and thus provides a faithful example of what the Prince of Wales Blockhouse would have been.
Of the three idential blockhouses built in 1790s the King's is the last standing.
Magemu, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
_____________________________________________________________________________
Source: https://pahor.de/product/south-africa-cape-town-fortifications-the-prince-of-wales-blockhouse-original-manuscript-plans/
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________