A hill in
Natal in
South Africa, by the banks of the River Tugela and near the town of
Ladysmith, where on 24 January 1900 the
Boers defeated British forces under
Sir Redvers Buller. The name means "Spy Hill" or more prosaically "
Lookout Hill". It was an especially bloody battle, with nearly 1500 killed, mainly British; and was observed by young
Winston Churchill, at that time a reporter for
The Morning Post. The defeat caused serious repercussions in the British establishment.
A very detailed eye-witness account by a Boer soldier is to be found at www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/reitzd/commando/chap9.htm - this includes a rumour that the artillery barrage was "the heaviest concentration of gun fire that has been seen in any war up to the present".
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle presents the British view in his book The Great Boer War, the relevant chapter of which is at www.pinetreeweb.com/conan-doyle-chapter-15.htm , complete with a few pictures.
The battle was commemorated by, among other things, the name of a mound forming part of the Hillsborough football stadium.