Ferncliffe Nature Reserve
Ferncliffe Nature Reserve
2.5 km
Total Distance
107 m
Elevation Gain
Trail description
A 2.5 km loop with about 110 m of climbing on the forest tracks of the Ferncliffe Nature Reserve, starting by the picnic site on the green ridge above Pietermaritzburg. The reserve keeps a strip of primary mistbelt forest with mature lemonwood, quinine and a handful of Henkel's yellowwoods, while much of the former grassland, planted with gum and pine in 1954, is still under plantation. Jesse Smith, an English stonemason who arrived in Durban in 1850, settled here and built a cottage that still stands near the picnic area. The Msunduzi Municipality looks after the reserve, where the indigenous forest is under pressure from invasive plants such as wild ginger and lantana.