Set in the Cambedoo Mountains in the Karoo, Aberdeen is about 50 km south-west of Graaff-Reinet.

Aberdeen was founded when the Nederduits-Gerefomeerde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) of Graaff-Reinet gave permission for the establishment of a new congregation on 10 September 1855. The farm Brakkefontein had been bought for this purpose by Jan Vorster. A village soon sprang up around the new church, and it was named Aberdeen, after the town in Scotland where a minister of the church, Andrew Murray sr., had been born.

In 1858 the first village management board was established, and it soon developed into a municipality. Today, Aberdeen is one of the declared architectural conservation areas of the Karoo, and many examples of Victorian architecture can be found there. According to legend, the last wild quagga was seen in the Aberdeen area.

References

• Potgieter, DJ et al. (eds). (1970) Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa I. Nasou: Cape Town, p. 7.
• Xplore South Africa. (no date) SATOUR, p. 286.
• www.suncoast.co.za/aberdeen.htm

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