Craighall was established in 1902 by the Scot, William Rattray,[2] the owner of a large farm, Klipfontein, which at the time was an hour's journey by horse-carriage to the north of the bustling mining town of Johannesburg. He divided the farm into a residential development, which he named Craighall after his birthplace in Blairgowrie, Scotland,[2] and a recreational development of lakes and parkland, much of which still exists as the open land of Delta Park. Craighall was an attractive, fertile piece of land on a gentle west/north facing slope.
The main natural feature of Craighall is the cascading rocky waterfall on the Braamfontein Spruit at the north-west corner of the suburb. It flows year-round but becomes a particularly dramatic spectacle during heavy rain-storms. Waterfall Avenue, the original centre-piece avenue of the suburb, was named after it.
Craighall was originally planned with erven (stand) sizes at just under an acre (3,850 square metres, known as a "Craighall Acre"), although more than half have since been sub-divided into smaller stand sizes. It remains a spacious, treed residential suburb with abundant bird-life, yet located within 6 minutes drive of Sandton.
^ abRaper, Peter E.; Moller, Lucie A.; du Plessis, Theodorus L. (2014). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Jonathan Ball Publishers. p. 1412. ISBN9781868425501.
