Voices from our Scarborough roots

Have you discovered your Scarborough yet?

This page is dedicated to our history; first-hand experiences and memories of residents who have been living in Scarborough for many years.

Fiona's Scarborough

I am blessed to have lived in this special place since May 1981, when Scarbs was a remote seaside hamlet that not even many Capetonians knew about, with just 60 houses, only 30 of which were permanently occupied by retirees, Navy personnel and folk with an off-the-grid mentality (as there was no electricity).

In all my 42 years of living here, Scarborough (and surrounds) has enchanted me with its intrinsic magic and hidden treasures that just wait to be discovered. To have lived encompassed by, and interacting with, the natural world, its inhabitants and the elements that govern it, has truly been a blessing, and the reason why I so fiercely try to preserve what we have been gifted.

To be able to fully understand this special space we occupy, and our true place within it, I can only suggest taking as many walks as possible within the village, in the mountains around us and along the coastal trails, allowing yourself to absorb and appreciate all the wonders that Scarborough so freely offers.

July 2023.

by Fiona Barnardo

Have you discovered your Scarborough yet?

There's more than one Scarborough - we're the one where you can still see the stars

'I came to Scarborough in 1985. I had no experience of village life and knew no one - I just wanted to be close to Cape Point. Without any effort on my part but just by being there I soon met neighbours, ratepayers' reps, conservationists and lovers of nature, and I couldn't help getting involved. I began to learn about village dynamics, so different from the suburbs. It's true that over the decades nostalgia for the "old" Scarborough has crept in big-time, but I keep telling myself how beautiful our area would have been if there was no village at all, and how we are really all intruders. And how lucky we are that in the 1920s the authorities proclaimed this badly designed village where we have the privilege to live. The city is expanding, and inevitably so, is Scarborough. City mentality is growing here (big houses, high fences,.security gates) but stalwart efforts are being made to preserve the village atmosphere and its conservation ethic. So for me, Scarborough is the best home I ever had. I have learned so much, about village life, about the natural environment, about people. I have made real friends. I truely love Scarborough and am more than grateful to call this place home.'

Magda Alberts, January 2023.

Scarborough House

Give me a Scarborough house to live in

with its Stardust nights and Sunrise heaven

And when Winter comes and the storm God's race

We'll be safe and snug by the fireplace

There's a path that leads through the Milkwood trees

To a beach that is edged by the Southern Seas

And the surge and the swell and the surf and spray

Have a voice that sings on a windswept day

They sing of a simple life that's past

Of the silent peace of the happy heart

My friend, if you can't be happy there

You will never be happy anywhere

I dreamed this house in the candle shine

This Scarborough house for me and mine.

Hal Shaper 1988

'96 Main Rd Scarborough (Erf 257) was built in about 1952 and last belonged to the Butler family but had not been lived in for many years before I acquired it for R100.000 in January of 1993! Michele & I first discovered Scarborough in 1976 when we met a Rudolph Steiner fanatic from SA in our friend's Amsterdam guest house “The Westertoren “. This is how the little cabin looked some years before it became derelict. The agent instructed me to knock it down but Bobby and my other zen friend felt that they could repair it as 80% of the Oregon pine joists and wall studs were sound!'

Harold Kohlnik

Shorts..

Dalene van Rensburg, one of Scarborough's pillars of strength, gets a winter warmer

'A bespoke blanket for Dalene, in appreciation for all she does, from the Scarborough community . Thank you Dalene.' Mary Grendon.

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