Dundee’s Lost Tales – There’s Gold In That Hill

Men have gone to war, betrayed their families and died, all in the name of seeking lost treasure.

Our first Lost Tales piece covered the story of buried treasure on Mpati Hill. Ben Lloyd of Lloyd’s Bay, Hattingspruit, has another story to tell and it’s a fascinating one.
When Ben and his family were considering buying the property, those living nearby told of treasure hunters who would arrive in the dead of the night and dig holes in the nearby hill overlooking Lloyd’s Bay.

Ben would spend the following mornings closing the holes. Things calmed down in later years but now and again the treasure hunters do flock to Hattingspruit under the veil of darkness. So what are they looking for and how did it get to be buried there?

Well it all goes back to the Battle of Talana after which the British vacated Dundee. It was decided that one group of soldiers would retreat to Dannhauser via Hattingspruit. With them was a precious cargo of 12 kists of gold coins which was the soldiers’ wages. The tale goes that the convoy stopped over at Hattingspruit – in the vicinity of the hill overlooking Lloyds Bay for the night.

Three men were instructed to guard the boxes of coins. But the next day there were only 11 kists. One had disappeared during the nights and was never found.
Years later an old man dying in England told a story which sparked the treasure hunt. As a kind of death-bed confession, he admitted that he and the other two guards had buried one of the kists in ‘a hole next to a huge boulder’ with the intention to retrieve it after the war. They never did.

Ben says all the holes dug on the property were next to huge boulders. There were also rumours  that President Paul Kruger stayed over in Hattingspruit while on his way to Pongola. The old President sheltered in the old house which is now used for paint ball games. While there, he is thought to have buried the famed Kruger Millions.

So no wonder little Hattingspruit is subject to so much treasure hunt speculations.

FEEDBACK:
The Lost Tales continues to receive encouraging feedback. Apparently those who patronized The Purple Pig were a little colour blind. One resident said that it was in fact The Blue Pig. It’s exact location is also debateable. Well, it is a lost tale…

Remember the story of the Glencoe Mining Disaster of 1908 and the memorial in the Dundee cemetery?
Supt Gert Pieterse of Dannhauser says the little church at Van Reenen is dedicated to the men who lost their lives in an attempt to save their trapped colleagues.