Spook Hill

Experience the ‘spook’ at this local legend of a spot

Spook Hill is a section of Parel Valley Road in Somerset West where if you switch your car off it appears to run up the hill instead of moving downhill. 

Spook Hill has generated many a discussion as to whether this apparent phenomenon is an optical illusion, is due to magnetism, or is one of the world’s great unsolved mysteries.

Some argue that it just ‘appears’ as if the hill is going upwards but in fact it is going downwards. The best is to try it out for yourself. Drive to the start point, best viewed in front of the Spanish Farm Estate board, put your car in neutral, let down the handbrake, and experience what happens next!

Spooky indeed... even more spooky when facing north. The road ahead will appear downhill, but in neutral you will start reversing back uphill!

Warning!  This road is narrow and gets very busy at times, so caution is needed when testing this phenomenon.

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