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History: The huge, grey, granite bosses from which the Paarl Mountain derives its name had their origin some 550 million years ago as a molten mass, cooling gradually, deep under the surface of the earth. Millions of centuries passed and the overlying rocks were eroded away, exposing these well-known and impressive granite plutonic rocks measuring about 14 km long and 6 km wide, with a maximum height of 729 metres above sea level. In addition to several other rock masses, there are three great bosses on the top of the mountain. The most easterly one straight above the town is called Paarl Rock; the two westerly ones are Gordon Rock and slightly to the south of it, the Bretagne Rock.
This mountain with its characteristic rocks was a well-known landmark for the nomadic Hottentots even before the arrival of Europeans in South Africa. The Gorachouqua or “Tobacco thieves” camped at the foot of the mountain during the summer months; they called it the Tortoise Mountain, with obvious reference to the great domed rocks.
Shortly after the arrival of Van Riebeeck the mountain became known to the Whites and received its present name. A serious shortage of meat for the Cape settlement and the Company’s ships calling at the Cape obliged Van Riebeeck to send expeditions inland to trade with the Hottentots for sheep and cattle. With this in view, the Fiscal Abraham Gabbema set off in October, 1657, with a well-organised expedition to the Klapmuts Mountain which was within sight of Cape Town. His journal records that on 22nd October he passed “between the Diamond and Pearl Mountain and the other side of the Clapmuts Mountain” as far as the Great Berg River “where he pitched camp and spent the night”. The wet rocks glistening in the sun after lengthy rains reminded Gabbema of a diamond and a pearl. Later writings clearly show that his use of “Diamond” and “Pearl” referred to the Gordon and Bretagne rocks respectively.
Gabbema’s name Pearl Mountain became permanent and the mountain became a well-known landmark for the colonists and travellers to the interior. It is men tioned in many descriptions of journeys. Thus Francois Valentyn wrote in 1726: “. . . and a little further on hes the Paarl Mountain so called not after pearls that might have occurred here, but after a certain rock on the top of it with the shape of a pearl”. Another famous traveller, John Barrow, in his Travels in Africa (1806) gives a full but unreliable description of the mountain. According to him, “The Paarlberg . . . has taken its name from a chain of large round stones that pass over the summit, like the pearls of a necklace. Of these the two that are placed near the central and highest point of the range are called par excellence, the pearl and the diamond . . His description of the Paarl Rock suggests that he never visited it: “The Paarl is accessible on the northern side, but is nearly perpendicular on all the others. This sloping side is more than a thousand feet (300 m) in length and the perpendicular altitude about four hundred feet (120 m) above its base on the summit of the mountain where its circumference is a full mile (1,6 km) . . . The Diamond is the higher block, but less bulky, and, being cone-shaped, is difficult and dangerous of ascent”.
It cannot be established precisely when these rocks were renamed Bretagne and Gordon and even the derivation of these names are cause for conjecture. Bretagne is a province in France, but only one French Huguenot, Guillaume Loret, came from there. Gordon Rock was very probably named after Col. Robert Jacob Gordon who commanded the garrison at the Cape from 1780 to 1795 and undertook lengthy journeys into the interior.
The geology, plants and animal life of Paarl Mountain interested travellers and scientists from an early date.
The first person to draw attention to the Paarl rocks as an interesting geological occurrence was Francis Masson, a gardener at the Royal Gardens at Kew, sent to the Cape in 1772 by George III to collect seeds and plants. On his return to England he gave an account of his journeys in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1776) and referred to his visit to Paarl as follows: “I saw nothing there so worthy of observation as two large solid rocks of a roundish figure . . . and they are found to be a species of saxum or granite . . .“ At Masson’s instigation Dr. William Anderson and Sir William Hamilton visited the rocks in quick succession. Differences of opinion arose as to how they originated. Hamilton held the view that they had been thrown on to the mountain from a distance by a volcanic explosion, while others believed that the rocks were formed in situ and that the entire mountain consisted of granite. John Barrow rightly pointed out that the Paarl Rock consisted of quartz, felspar and mica, while Dr. Henry Lichtenstein gives the explanation which is generally accepted today: that they are the product of the ultrametamorphism of the Malmesbury sediments into which they are intrusive.
The pioneer travellers found Paarl Mountain a veritable treasure house for botanists and zoologists. There was a great variety of plants and shrubs. The Cape wild-olive and many varieties of protea, especially the one known as “Suikerbos”, grew luxuriantly. Ferns and creepers were seen everywhere and mosses covered the rocks. Birds of many kinds fluttered in the trees and shrubs. Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist, on his journey round the world paid a special visit to Paarl Mountain in 1836 to inspect the fauna and flora.
As the town of Paarl developed, more and more inroads were made on Paarl Mountain. Granite became a valuable commodity and granite quarries were opened. The people of Paarl and nature-lovers generally became increasingly aware of the attractions of the mountain.
With the financial support of Jan Phillips, a member of the well-known family of wagon-makers of Paarl, the Municipality built the fine Jan Phillips mountain drive up the eastern slopes to the well-known rocks. Along this 14 kilometre drive two interesting stopping places were developed. One of them is the wild flower garden for which the Municipality gave up the mountain reserve at the instigation of the Society for the Beautifying of Paarl; the other is the Mill-stream which originally provided water for driving Blake’s grain-mill which was Paarl’s watermill. Several dams have been built on top of the mountain to supplement the town’s water supplies and a monument to the Afrikaans language is to be built on the southern slope in the near future.
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