Houses that became attraction sites

Lord Egerton Castle

We build houses mainly for shelter and by all standards many achieve and serve this purpose. However, with time, most houses outlive their usefulness, become old, fall or just become neglected and forgotten. On the other hand, there are others, just like wine, that just seem to get better with time.

Ever imagined for a minute what the house you are building, planning to build or have built will be in the next 50 years? There are houses that have stood the test of time, carried their history and serenity into the present as badges of honour -  and now stand strong as attraction sites. Magnificent buildings you can literally say understand metamorphosis better than a butterfly! Here are some of those houses:

The Ol Pejeta House

This magnificently presented structure stands at the centre of the expansive Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia County, between the foothills of the Aberdares and Mt Kenya. The house, with a luxurious setting of the colonial style ranch house, was built in 1970s by Adnan Khashoggi, reportedly for million of dollars. Khashoggi is a Saudi-born multi-millionaire, surrounded by mystery and controversy.

He has had dealings with powerful people across the world, including presidents and has been linked to terrorism, prostitution and arms smuggling. He used this house as his hideout from his international wheeler-dealer compatriots. It is rumoured that he would fly straight into his house and custom officials would follow him and his entourage there for clearance.

The house has stood the test of time and transformed from a grand hideout ranch house into a palatial safari lodge, under the Serena Hotels management. The luxurious lodge, with a glorious view of Mt Kenya, boasts of a private guest cottage, a dining area, two spacious master suites and two guest bedrooms surrounded by two private swimming pools. Its upper floor balcony faces towards the Laikipia plains making it possible for residents to view wild animals from the comfort of their seats.

Lord Egerton Castle

The Lord Egerton Castle is a splendid architectural masterpiece that stands conspicuously on the outskirts of Nakuru Town. It was built in the 1930s by Lord Maurice Egerton for an Austrian lady whom he had fallen in love with. Lord Egerton brought the woman to visit his house. She laughed at him, saying she was of “royalty” back at home and would never live in a “chicken coop”, the six-bedroom house that he lived in. This provoked him to build her the detailed and stunning castle.

The well-chipped stones for its walls, the zinc tiles for roofing the castles and the builders were all shipped all the way from Europe. The stupendous four-storey structure was also fitted with up-to-date mechanic and electronic gadgets at the time, including an escalator.

Impressive by all standards, but it didn’t stop her from rejecting him twice, before his friends. This pushed the baron into a stealthy level of hatred for women. No woman was allowed to step into the castle, and anyone disobeying this would be shot dead.

In an anachronistic twist, today, the castle is an attraction site for lovers out for fun and numerous weddings are hosted here, something that would probably make Lord Egerton turn in his grave.

The Macmillan House

This opulent mansion on the slopes of Mt Kilimambogo is a fortress-like house where Lord William Northrup Macmillan lived. The structure is imposing even by today’s standards. It was built in 1918 and said to have hosted many wild parties in colonial Kenya.

The house, also known as the Ol Donyo Sabuk Mansion, has 32 bedrooms and stories have it that Sir MacMillan and his wife lived in each wing for six months before moving to the next. It is a testimony to a well-thought and adherence to details piece of architecture - from the rough cut stone walls, the wooden floor to the underground bunker with a tunnel that leads out of the house. The Tourism Trust Fund rehabilitated this monument to give visitors an opportunity to see where the mighty lived and fell.

Other houses with rich history and resilience are the Marula Manor and the Karen Blixen in the heart of the leafy and quiet suburb of Karen, Nairobi. Marula Manor, currently housing offices and an ideal venue for sumptuous weddings and events, was formally the home of the late Sir Henry Jock Delves Broughton’s. Sir Jock, who was once accused of murdering his wife in an unresolved mysterious murder case dubbed the Happy Valley murder, was Lord Delamare’s frenemy.

The Karen Blixen is a museum that was once the farm house of Karen Blixen, a Danish author and her husband, Baron Brur Von Blixen. The house gained fame in 1985 during the shooting of the movie, Out of Africa, an Oscar winning film based on Karen’s autobiography with the same title. The Kenyan government expressed interest in the house and set up the Karen Blixen Museum in 1986.