Limestone Quarry

Limestone Quarry

Immovable Culture Heritage

The origins of the quarry link back to the early Dutch occupation of the island, where limestone from the quarry was used to build the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town, using prison labour to mine the stone. Throughout the Apartheid-era use of the site, prisoners were forced to work at the quarry. The rock was sometimes used for the island's roads, but was primarily used as a tool to occupy the prisoners' time. This was hard, manual labour in the heat and blinding conditions. Nelson Mandela was one of the prisoners who worked in this quarry, and his eyesight was permenantly damaged due to the blinding conditions of bright sun and white limestone. Today, the Stones of Rememberance mark the site as a symbol of what the prisoners experienced. The cairn was started by Nelson Mandela and fellow ex-prisoners during a reunion on the island after the end of Apartheid, in 1995.

is51102025

1600s

ec349@st-andrews.ac.uk

Site

1483

26/04/2025

https://www.robben-island.org.za/banishment-1963-1995/, https://www.cape-town-heritage.co.za/heritage-site/robben-island-limestone-quarry.html

cm x cm x cm

current,-33.80548785344844,18.373891353476214;

Government of South Africa

Limestone Quarry

TEXT

Building

3964

public

Robben Island Museum

1

ec349@st-andrews.ac.uk