Noetzie Beach Castles

old Noetzie castles before demolition and renovation
old Noetzie castles before demolition and renovation
The old Noetzie castles before demolition and renovation.

I’ve noticed that the words used in the title of this blog post are the most popular search terms bringing traffic to this website. I think people are fascinated by castles because castles take them back to their childhood,  fairy tales and stories of pirates and hidden treasures.

I do not want to disappoint you but there are no old buried treasure tales to spice up Noetzie’s  history- the more interesting parts of the castles’ history seemed to have happened in the last decade (access battles, protest marches, ancient skeletons and a few other present day issues I don’t want to mention here).

Some of the oldest castles at Noetzie have been demolished and re-built, to bring them into the ‘top dollar’ luxury property market bracket. The last remaining old castle is called Pezula Castle and was built  about 75 years ago, and was the inspiration for the name of the neighbouring estate, perhaps? After all, we heard a rumour that the developer arrived at Noetzie by helicopter, landing on the beach in front of the old Pezula Castle. ‘Pezula’ is Zulu word meaning ” up high” or “in the heavens”.  This particular castle remains empty and abandoned, not really safe for occupation. I wonder if the castle will eventually be fixed up too, or will it be allowed to slowly go to ruin? As it is over 60 years old it does have heritage status.  My husband and a few others who have been there at night, say it is haunted. He used to hang out there with his friends when they were teenagers and the stories about the ghosts pushing them down the stone steps seem to have been exaggerated with each re-telling. So I am not convinced they are true, but nor would I even dream of going there on a stormy, moonless night.

We have watched ordinary people in all shapes and sizes make the trek down the stairs from the car park,  wanting to see the castles with their very own eyes. They walk on to the beach in front of the castles, turn around, point and pose for photographs, and immediately leave the beach- back up the 116 steps and a very steep track. That is a real pilgrimage of love for knobbly stone buildings, with not much history to speak of.  We never can believe that the castle fans do not walk on the beach, or cool their sweaty toes in the river mouth or just stop to properly enjoy the breathtaking beautiful Nature at Noetzie. The statistics for this website seem to reflect a similar fascination for the Noetzie castles.

Here are some castle photographs for the fans of  Noetzie castles. There are more  pictures, stories and information about the castles on the History and Gallery pages of this website.  Of the six castles at Noetzie, which is your favourite? I think the smaller Perekuil Castle is the nicest one. Tucked around the corner on the far Western end of the beach with it’s own little beach and gulley.

There are plans  for another  new large castle on the western end of the beach . Maybe that will force the castle fans to explore a bigger area and enjoy the beach more?