Page 83 - KBHA Bulletin 10

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The Ghost at Villa Capri, St. James

Derek Stuart-Findlay

Over the years a number of residents at Capri have seen the ghost of a lady wandering

the passages and bedrooms of the house. Capri was the first structure erected between
Muizenberg and Kalk Bay and was built around 1814 as a whaling station by Johan

Heinrich Muller. Whale carcasses were pulled up on Danger Beach. Public pressure
forced the whaling industry to move east to Zandvlei in the 1850s and the building, after

being converted to a residence, was sold to the Rathfelder family in 1859.

Monica Ritchken, who bought Capri in 1962, described the lady ghost as “a gentle,

grey-haired figure in a dark dress with a brooch at her throat. There is nothing the least
bit frightening about her – in fact she brings a sense of tranquillity with her as she

quietly appears and stands in pensive mood, visiting the home that once held all that

was near and dear to her.”

Grace Stuart-Findlay, a member of the family that owned Capri for some seventy years,
always maintained that the ghost was Mrs. Rathfelder, the matriarch of a large family of

sons and daughters.

The Ghosts at Abraham Auret’s Cottage, St James,

and at the Fish Hoek Outspan

Faans Klopper

Behind the cottage was a building which was his boat-shed for his whaling and fishing
gear. This building had a loft with a stair leading up to it. Apparently there was a bed in

this upper room. The story goes that, while someone was in bed, footsteps were heard of

“someone” ascending the staircase. Upon reaching the top of the staircase the door