Physical Address
Pearly Beach
Western Cape
7220
Set on Marine Drive at Market Square, the Old Harbour Museum Complex is not a place you rush through. It’s somewhere to wander slowly, pausing often — to read, to look, to listen to the sea. On warm summer days especially, the experience flows easily between indoor exhibits and open-air spaces, making it one of Hermanus’s most rewarding stops for curious travellers.
For a modest entrance fee (currently around R30 for adults and R10 for children), one ticket opens the doors to three distinct but interconnected museums: the Whale House, De Wet’s Huis Photo Museum, and the Old Harbour Museum itself. Together, they tell the story of how a rocky inlet became the heart of a town.
A Shelter Since the 1850s
Long before Hermanus became a holiday destination, people were drawn here by fresh water and fish. As early as 1855, the rocky inlet at what was then known as Hermanuspietersfontein provided a relatively safe harbour for small fishing boats. By 1857, the Old Harbour was firmly established as the centre of daily life.
For more than a century, the return of the fishing boats was the event of the day. Fishermen often had to wait outside the harbour in heavy seas, watching the swells and rowing in only when a break appeared. Crowds gathered at “Visbaai”, as the harbour was known, to watch boats land, fish gutted and sold on the spot, and vessels hauled up the slipway by sixteen men — eight fore and eight aft — straining under carrying poles.
Some fish were salted and packed into crates for transport inland. Others, including snoek and harders, were dried on bokkom stands in the harbour or in fishermen’s backyards. The work was communal, physical and constant — and not without controversy. Complaints about smell and hygiene were common, leading to stricter rules by the local council.
As the fishing industry grew, safety improvements followed. A breakwater was built in 1904. A crane was later installed to lift boats, but after crushing the first vessel it attempted to raise, it was quickly abandoned. By 1936, wooden fish-cleaning tables — often swept away by waves — were replaced with cement ones.
From Working Harbour to National Monument
Jurisdiction of the Old Harbour passed to the South African Railways and Harbours in 1919, and in 1950 it was officially proclaimed a harbour. But change was already on the horizon. In the 1940s, a new harbour was built two kilometres west, offering safer and more convenient access. Gradually, fishermen left the old “visbaai” behind.
Recognising its historical significance, the Old Harbour was declared a National Monument in 1970. Two years later, in 1972, it was proclaimed a museum. The first curator, Guy Clarke, was appointed in 1973, and oversaw the careful restoration of the neglected area. Old fishing boats were collected and repaired, cement work restored, and an indoor museum gradually developed alongside the open-air harbour.
Boats, Bokkoms and the Fishermen’s Village
Today, the Old Harbour Museum remains an all-weather, open-air museum, accessible 24 hours a day. Weathered boats rest quietly in the harbour, their hulls bearing the marks of decades of work. Most date from between 1855 and 1961, when boats relied on sails and oars before some were converted to inboard engines, often Kelvin Marine models.
Look closely and you’ll spot cut-outs for masts, slats used to separate each fisherman’s catch, and grooves worn into wood by taut fishing lines. One boat, Nellie II, stands apart: a World War II-era lifeboat, clinker-built with overlapping planks. She is a reminder of Nellie I, which rescued survivors of the HMS Birkenhead disaster off Danger Point in 1852.
Sharks, Spectacle and the Selkirk Legend
“Visbaai” was also a popular shark-catching spot — a form of public entertainment as much as fishing. No figure looms larger here than Bill Selkirk, known worldwide as the “shark enemy”. In April 1922, Selkirk landed a world-record shark after five and three-quarter hours, battling it for more than a kilometre along the rocks between the Old Harbour and the Marine Pool.
Selkirk’s exploits put Hermanus on the global fishing map. His trophies, including the jaws of that record-breaking shark, are displayed today in the Selkirk Room — a dramatic reminder of a time when endurance, bravado and spectacle defined coastal life.
The Whale House pays tribute to the sea
By the late twentieth century, Hermanus’s relationship with the sea had shifted. Whales, rather than fish, became the town’s defining attraction. In 1991, José Burman, chairman of the Friends of the Old Harbour, proposed the creation of a whale museum. Architect Pat Riley designed the Whale House as her contribution, and by 1994 it opened its doors.
Entirely dedicated to cetaceans — especially the Southern Right Whales that visit Walker Bay from May to December — the Whale House is both accessible and absorbing. A full-size whale skeleton dominates the space, while well-curated displays explain migration, feeding, reproduction and whale behaviour. It brings scientific clarity to the thrill of whale season just beyond the cliffs.
De Wet’s Huis: Photographs Without Cameras
De Wet’s Huis, now the Photo Museum, adds a quieter, more intimate layer to the complex. Built by Jacobus Petrus de Wet in 1889, later owned by the Wolhuter family, and acquired by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1933, it served as a school before being donated to the museum in 1983. Dismantled stone by stone – numbered to be restored – it was re-erected on Lemm’s Corner.
Inside, photographs by T.D. Ravenscroft, whose studio operated on Main Road in the late 1800s, offer a window into early Hermanus. Ironically, photography is not permitted inside — encouraging visitors to slow down, look closely, and carry the images away in memory rather than on a screen.
A Place to Linger
The Old Harbour Museum Complex is more than a collection of exhibits. It is the physical memory of Hermanus — shaped by tides, labour, ambition and adaptation. Sit on a bench overlooking the water, peer into rock pools in the intertidal zone, or trace the line between past and present as waves break against the old sea wall.
Without the Old Harbour, there would have been no Hermanus. Spending time here makes that history tangible — and leaves you with salt on your skin, stories in your head, and a deeper sense of place.
For more information, go to http://www.old-harbour-museum.co.za
