Why to visit Lord Milner Hotel and Matjiesfontein in the Karoo

8/5/2019

By Roxanne Reid
Imagine the foresight it must take to see a bare patch of Karoo veld and dream up a fully fledged village and health spa in the middle of nowhere. This is what happened when Scottish railwayman James Logan founded Matjiesfontein in South Africa back in 1884. Discover why to visit Lord Milner Hotel and Matjiesfontein in the Karoo.

Imagine too the tenacity of Logan going ahead with his plans to build The Lord Milner Hotel in 1899, in the early stages of the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902. Before long some 10 000 British troops were camping around the village and the Matjiesfontein hotel was taken over as a military hospital, the turret as a lookout.

Matjiesfontein accommodation at the Lord Milner Hotel

The facade of the Lord Milner Hotel

Once the war was over, the town and hotel were restored to their intended purpose as hotel and health spa while the concession at the station did a roaring trade supplying steam trains with water and passengers with refreshments. People who flocked to Matjiesfontein for its curative clean air in those early days included the likes of writer and feminist Olive Schreiner, Winston Churchill’s father Randolph, colonial empire builder Cecil John Rhodes and writer Rudyard Kipling.

That Matjiesfontein today is a time capsule of the Victorian era is thanks to another visionary who came along almost a century later. Hotelier David Rawdon did such a good job of restoring the hotel and town to their former glory that Matjiesfontein was declared a National Monument in 1975.

Old fashioned fuel pumps and broekie lace on the main road

There’s an ageless tranquillity here that’s hard to find in the fast-paced modern world. There’s little traffic so you can wander the streets in peace, admire old buildings and outdated petrol pumps on the side of the road, follow a puff of dust and see where it takes you.

The Laird's Arms pub

When the Blue Train or Rovos Rail stops at the Victorian station, visitors pour out like ants to visit the Matjiesfontein museum and the hotel, to admire the buildings in a time warp. It’s a frenetic time with lots of foot traffic and clicking of cameras, but things settle down when the whistle blows and the train moves away again on its trans-Karoo journey.

Then it’s time for those left behind to take tea in one of the hotel’s lounges or order a drink in the pub, to go for a walk across the veld or, later in the afternoon, to watch the sunset and the first glimmerings of what will be a spectacular night sky here in the dry Karoo.

Relax. Breathe in the clean Karoo air. Surrender yourself to be restored and revitalised so you can face a return to city life with equanimity.

Matjiesfontein train on Matjiesfontein station

Matjiesfontein train on its trans-Karoo journey

Things to do in Matjiesfontein
1. Download the free Matjiesfontein VoiceMap app (Apple and Android) as a guide to walk you around the village, point out some of the old buildings and fill you in on the little village’s intriguing history.

2. Take a trip on the old London double-decker red bus. At 18:00 each day except Sunday it takes visitors on a short tour of the village, picking out some of the landmarks like the house where Olive Schreiner stayed and the field where England and South Africa played the first friendly cricket match (James Logan was a great cricket fan). Finish your whistle-stop tour at the Laird’s Arms (see point 5) next to the hotel in time for a drink before dinner.

Old transport parked outside Matjiesfontein station

Old carts and a London red bus outside the station

3. Delve into the past in the Matjiesfontein museum – all three of them. The Transport Museum has a collection of vintage cars from the 1930s to 1960s, old bikes and train carriages. The Railway Museum on the station platform has a station master’s office dating back to the 1890s and the original signal room.

Wouldn't you love these see these gents out on the road in Matjiesfontein?

Matjiesfontein museum: Marie Rawdon Museum

Victorian furniture in one of the small, cold rooms beneath the station

By far my favourite place to get lost for an hour or two is the Marie Rawdon Museum under the station. There are vast collections of everything from kitchen utensils, old cameras and typewriters, to bedpans, dolls and war souvenirs, even a full-on pharmacy. The rooms under the station used to be a jail during the Anglo Boer War; feel the cold and damp and imagine what it must have been like for the prisoners during a Karoo winter.

Collection of bedpans and basins in the museum

Museum collections include cobbler's equipment and woodworking tools

The apothecary, or pharmacy, in Matjiesfontein museum

4. Walk around the village with your camera to capture memories of the restored old buildings. See the house where Olive Schreiner stayed in attempt to cure her asthma in the dry Karoo air, the old post office (now a gift shop) where she used to post her letters. Admire the bank building with its original teller’s counter and banking equipment intact, the pink church that used to be a concert hall and school until the 1960s.

The old post office

The yellow courthouse and jail would have been known to Boer hero Gideon Scheepers who spent time in the Matjiesfontein jail before he was tried for treason in Graaff-Reinet and executed by firing squad in 1902.

Matjiesfontein court house and jail

Visit Logan’s General Store (now a coffee shop) and see the flourmill and mineral waterworks where Logan produced lemonade and ginger beer to sell to travellers. A windmill harnessed the Karoo winds to generate electricity – a South African first – and power the mill. There’s a rather nice collection of succulents in the garden today.

Matjiesfontein General Store, now a coffee shop

5. Spend some time in the Laird’s Arms to soak up its saloon-like ambience. A local character, Johnny, plays rousing honky-tonk tunes in the evenings while you order a drink at the polished wooden bar with its shiny brass taps. It’s a wonderful place to imagine what the atmosphere in Matjiesfontein must have been like more than a hundred years ago. If you’re here at lunch time, order a pub lunch.

Johnny at the piano in the Laird's Arms

Things to do in Matjiesfontein: visit the Laird's Arms

Atmospheric dark wood and brass in the Laird's Arms pub

6. Explore the hotel, its grand staircase and reception rooms for a feel of what those who came here for their health at the turn of the 20th century would have experienced. Take a seat here or there to fully appreciate the moment.

The grand staircase in the hotel's lobby

One of the sitting rooms at the Lord Milner Hotel

I love the sitting room at the back where the piano is; last time we visited a young couple was enjoying a cup of tea, retreating into the coolness from a stinking hot day outside.

One of the sitting rooms at the Matjiesfontein hotels

The music room, with its piano and harp

7. Ask the staff about the ghosts that are said to haunt the hotel. On our very first visit we heard about a woman in white who is sometimes seen near the tower. On our most recent visit, we commented on the strange eyes of the blonde-haired child in a painting in the Marie Rawdon Museum. The chap in the museum told us that a visitor had recently taken a photo of it with her cell phone, another with her daughter’s camera. Then she screamed and came scuttling out as if the hounds of hell were at her heels. Turned out the cell phone pic was fine, but in the other there was a shadow over the child’s shoulder as if someone was standing behind her. A Matjiesfontein ghost? Who can tell?

Matijiesfontein ghost - is this a portrait of one of them?

Painting of the girl who may have a Matjiesfontein ghost over her shoulder

8. Explore the gardens behind the hotel to appreciate how they survive in the Karoo extremes of really hot summers and really cold winters. If you go far enough you’ll discover the swimming pool, where residents can relax on a lounger with a good book.

Rooms set in green gardens

9. Duck into the tiny traveller’s chapel along the river behind the hotel to imagine how perfect it would be for an intimate wedding. Take a moment to appreciate the serenity and listen to the sounds of the tinkling fountain outside. The building’s original use was far less unruffled; it used to house gas-generating equipment to light the town.

Traveller's chapel, Matjiesfontein

10. See David Rawdon’s house where he died in 2010. It’s the last cottage down the side road where the pink church is. Someone told us he ordered champagne the night he died and the bottle and glass have been left untouched. Someone else told us it was whisky so – as with all good legends – the stories are already getting jumbled.

11. Enjoy dinner in the Victorian-style dining room with its dark antique furniture and heavy drapes. The food is of the traditional Karoo variety, with bobotie, lamb shank and malva pudding making an appearance. Service is friendly but slow when the dining room is full, so try to relax and downshift to Karoo time.

Things to do in Matjiesfontein: take a walk on the Karoo veld

12. Go for a walk in the Karoo veld, to feel the ‘sense of wild exhilaration and freedom’ that Olive Schreiner so loved. There used to be a British encampment with 10 000 men and 20 000 horses here in about 1900, so you might even pick up a relic from those days.

The hotel at night

Matjiesfontein accommodation
When it comes to your Matjiesfontein accommodation, you get a choice between suites or rooms in the hotel, historic cottages in the village, or the lower priced Matjies Motel for more budget conscious travellers. I’ve stayed in a cottage in the village, the main hotel (which I love for its classic style) and the Riverbank Rooms at the motel. The latter aren’t as posh as the hotel but still perfectly comfortable at a lower price, with the bonus of a parking spot close to your door.

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