If you’re hiking along one of Table Mountain’s routes around noon, don’t be surprised if your ears are confronted with a loud bang. Fear not, as you have just been introduced to Cape Town’s oldest tradition: Every day at 12:00, a cannon is fired on the slopes of Signal Hill, just as it has been doing for the past 224 years (except for Sundays and public holidays). On a windless day the noise can even be heard as far as Bloubergstrand.
A visit to this daily event constitutes an authentic Cape Town experience, so on a Wednesday morning we embarked on the journey to finally cross it off our bucket list and offer you a first-hand account of this spectacle.
Noon gun gatherings can get quite busy, especially on Saturdays. On the particular Wednesday we visited, the site was teeming with primary school students who came as part of an educational outing. At 11:45 a member of the South African Navy started delivering a history presentation regarding the noon gun’s origins. In his hand he had a 1.5 kg bag of gunpowder which he later pushed into the barrel of the cannon. Ten seconds before the gun went off, the countdown began and everyone had to stand back so as not to be deafened by the sound. And then “bang!”, the whole city knew it was noon as the gun fired for the 66006th time.
Purpose and history
The cannon was initially brought to Cape Town by the British in 1795, but it only started firing time signals from the Imhoff Battery near the Castle of Good Hope in 1806. When ships dwelled in Table Bay during the early 1800’s, the chronometers responsible for measuring their longitude often lost time, but the noon gun helped them maintain accuracy.
In 1902 the noon gun was moved to it’s current location at the Lion Battery on Signal Hill where it fired its first noon signal in 1903. The noon gun later gained a deeper meaning when in 1918 the mayor instated the firing of the noon gun as a symbolic act to commemorate all victims who had perished during the wars.
How it works
The two green cannons on duty are in fact the oldest still in use in the world. The firing is triggered by means of an electronic signal sent via Telkom lines from the South African Astronomical Observatory’s atomic clock. It automatically lights the gunpowder and enables the cannon to shoot at 12:00 – accurate to the millisecond. In case it misfires the second cannon is on standby.
Interesting trivia
According to the officer the gun has only failed to fire once during his 15 years in office. This was on January 7th, 2005 due to a technical problem and it was all over the newspapers the next day, because Capetonians had failed to hear the noon gun for the first time in more than 200 years.
To put a modern twist on things, a Twitter account was created for the noon gun in 2013 which tweets the word “BANG!” every day at noon.
Visitor information
Whether you are a Capetonian born and raised or just passing through, a visit to the noon gun is not to be missed.
Directions: From Buitengracht Street, turn up towards the mountain in Upper Bloem Street across from the OK Express. After this you will notice the first sign directing you to the noon gun. Just follow these signs up the hill to the Lion Battery. Entrance is free. We recommend showing up just before 11:45 so as not to miss the history presentation. Remember to cover your ears when the gun fires!
We suggest making a day trip of the outing by adding other nearby attractions to your itinerary. Drive all the way to the top of Signal Hill to enjoy the panoramic views over Table Mountain, Green Point and Sea Point. Once you’re there, you might as well make use of the tandem paragliding opportunities. Another idea is to backtrack on Signal Hill Road where you will encounter the entrance to amazing hiking trails up Lion’s Head.
TravelGround boasts amazing accommodation close by in the suburbs of Tamboerskloof, Bo-Kaap, De Waterkant and Green Point. Staying here will ensure full immersion in the sights and sounds of Cape Town, including the noon gun at 12:00 and the Bo-Kaap’s mosques at 13:00.
So why don’t you make a weekend of your visit to the noon gun for a culturally and historically enriching Cape Town stay?
