Bukit Mandai

How to visit: There is no public access to the remnants of Bukit Mandai, as obviously as the country's main military ammunition storage, it is strictly out of bounds. However you can still catch a imaginary glimpse of the hill if you hike along the so-called pipeline trail (in the stretch mostly running immediately on the west side of Bukit Timah Expressway, a couple of hundreds of metres south of Mandai Road). The figure below depict the view along the trail where Bukit Mandai would have stood right there in the immediately background, likely covering the sky view with lush green instead.

History:

The writeup here is an abridged version of a blog page here.

Bukit Mandai first appeared on maps very early on. On the very first map, made in the early 1820s, that had the shape of Singapore island more or less correct [1], was recorded only one major feature in the interior of Singapore. In the Figure below, you can see this feature of a hill (a zoom-in version provided in the inset). The position matches the location of Bukit Mandai. The interesting bit is that in this early map, the name of this hill feature (See the zoomed in inset in the Figure) is labelled as 'Bukit Teemah' (a variation of 'Bukit Timah' undoubtedly)! Presumably, the hill when viewed from the survey ship circumnavigating the island, could have been misidentified as the current Bukit Timah [2]. However, I can also think of another possibility: Perhaps the feature identified is indeed originally called 'Bukit Teemah'. Somehow later, for whatever reason, the 'Bukit Timah' that we know today got the name instead. A wild speculation but food for thought.

Bukit Mandai next appeared as 'Bukit Kranjee' (Variation of the current toponym "Kranji") in the 1846 Hydrographic Chart by S. Congalton and J.T. Thomson [3]. It was only in a 1848 map that "Mandai" (or variations of it) finally came to be attached to this hill as "Bukit Ulu Mandi". This map named "Map Of The Old Straits, Or Silat Tambrau And The Creeks To The North Of Singapore Island" was the result of surveying by J.T. Thomson, the Straits Settlement's Government Surveyor (and the 'Thomson' of 'Thomson Road'), in April 1848 [4] (See Map below).

On maps, the first indication of Bukit Mandai's height is in the 1898 edition of the "Map Of the Island of Singapore And Its Dependencies, at 426 ft (129.8 m) [5]. This map also indicates for the first time, the heights of Bukit Panjang, Bukit Gombak and Bukit Batok, amongst others (See a blog page here). On the topographical maps from 1932 onwards, 'Bukit Mandai' at 422 ft (128.6 m) seems to become the official name and height of the hill.

Bukit Mandai is part of the Bukit Timah Granite Formation. By 1940, there were already some quarrying activities in the Bukit Mandai area for its granite. Post war, by the early 1950s, these quarrying activities have become heavy enough that they appear on maps. On the 1953 topographical map, 'Seng Kee Quarry' can be seen just north of Bukit Mandai [6]. This is followed by the appearance of Mandai Quarry No. 4 in the 1966 topographical map (See Figure below) [7]. The encroaching quarrying activities soon decimated Bukit Mandai. On maps, by 1970, the 422 ft summit was no more.