IF you were to ask one of the locals, you may well get a cheeky answer involving pirates, royals or smugglers. But in actual fact, Knysna’s well-known Noetzie castles are there because of a wisecrack. In the 1930s, then-Rhodesian Herbert Stephen Henderson was in the process of building a holiday home (using the rough-hewn local stone purely because it was practical) when one of the locals wandered over. ‘All you need to do is add a few turrets and you’ll have a castle,’ he quipped. Herbert took the dig in his stride and proceeded to do just that – and so the first Noetzie castle got its distinctive look. Not long after, the neighbours started to follow suit.
Today, there are six castles lining the secluded cove known as Noetzie Beach. Originally known as Noetziekamma, a Khoisan phrase for ‘dark water’ (probably a reference to the dark water of the lagoon), this secluded golden beach is just 10 minutes’ drive from Knysna and is bordered by the Sinclair Nature Reserve on one side and Pezula Private
