Robben Island: the crossing to Mandela's prison

Robben Island lies in Table Bay, just under 7 km off the coast of Cape Town. For more than three centuries it was a place of banishment, and from 1964 to 1982 it held Nelson Mandela, prisoner 466/64. Today it is a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you can only visit it on a guided tour that leaves by ferry from the V&A Waterfront.

The visit takes half a day and the ticket includes everything: the ferry, a bus tour of the island and the walk through the prison, often led by a former political prisoner. If you already know you want to go, the simplest option is the Ferry Ticket & Prison Museum Tour, from €42.50 with the ticket on your phone in minutes.

What is Robben Island

Robben Island is a small, flat island in Table Bay, off Cape Town, in South Africa's Western Cape. It is famous above all as the prison where the apartheid government held its political opponents from 1961 to 1991: Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison here, in a cell you can still see.

Today the whole island is run by Robben Island Museum, which opened in 1997, and in 1999 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is not a park you wander through: it is a place of memory, visited on a guided tour, with a small village where some of the people who work on the island live.

Why is it called Robben Island?

The name comes from the old Dutch word for seals, robben, which the first European sailors found on its shores.

Who owns Robben Island?

The island is run by Robben Island Museum, a public entity set up by the Department of Arts and Culture in 1997. The museum manages it as a national estate and a World Heritage Site, and runs conservation, education and research programmes there.

How old is Robben Island?

Geologically, very old. The island is the top of a submerged mountain, linked to Blouberg by an undersea saddle, and it was cut off from the mainland about 12,000 years ago, when the sea rose. Its bedrock was laid down 900 to 800 million years ago: the ripple marks of that ancient seabed can still be seen in the oldest quarry, in the south of the island.

Why is Robben Island a World Heritage Site?

UNESCO listed it in 1999 for two reasons. Its buildings bear witness to a sombre history, as a prison, a hospital for people society wanted out of sight and a military base. Its prison also stands for the triumph of the human spirit, of freedom and of democracy over oppression. The protected property covers 475 hectares, plus a buffer zone of one nautical mile of sea, with more than 700 listed buildings and sites.

Is Robben Island open today?

Tours run every day, weather and demand permitting, from the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the V&A Waterfront. In strong wind or heavy swell the ferry can be cancelled, so check the day before: is the Robben Island ferry running today? shows the forecast for every departure of the week. Our Robben Island weather page shows, month by month, how often strong wind blows during ferry hours. If you book the flexible ferry and prison tour on Tiqets, you can move the date for free up to 24 hours before.

Robben Island: history in brief

The first recorded landing was in 1498, when a group of Portuguese sailors sheltered in a cave for a few days. The first political prisoners arrived on 10 July 1658: Autshumato, a Khoikhoi leader, and two companions, sent there by Jan van Riebeeck. From then on the Dutch, and later the British, used the island to keep away the people Cape Town did not want: political exiles, convicts and, from 1845, people with leprosy, who lived here until the colony closed in 1931.

Between 1931 and 1960 it was not a prison at all, but a military base: from 1939 to 1945 its guns guarded the entrance to Table Bay, and the airstrip in the middle of the island was built in 1940-42.

In 1961 the apartheid government opened a maximum security prison for political prisoners. Nelson Mandela arrived on 13 June 1964, after the Rivonia Trial, and stayed until 31 March 1982, when he was moved to Pollsmoor Prison. Robert Sobukwe, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada and two future presidents, Jacob Zuma and Kgalema Motlanthe, were also held here, together with Namibian fighters of SWAPO such as their leader Herman Toivo ya Toivo, who shared B Section with Mandela.

Did anyone escape from Robben Island?

A few did, long before apartheid. In November 1659 Autshumato stole the island's boat and got away; he was believed drowned, but a year later he was back in Cape Town working as an interpreter. The Khoikhoi leader David Stuurman escaped four months after arriving, was recaptured ten years later and escaped again in 1820. The Xhosa leader Makhanda, sent to the island in 1819, tried within a year.

The last political prisoners left in 1991 and the prison closed in 1996. The museum opened in 1997, and in 1999 UNESCO listed the island as a World Heritage Site. Read the full history of Robben Island, from the first sailors to today.