In the know
- Our favourite rooms
- Each of the four rooms in the main house is uniquely inviting, and decorated with exquisite antiques. The bright and airy White Room is the largest, a small suite with an extra single bedroom, a dressing room and a private terrace. The bathroom has a walk-in shower and huge oval bath tub. It’s also the cosiest in winter, with carpets and a fireplace. The big Green Room has a four-poster bed, and is flooded with light in the morning. The Brown Room is small but sexy, with a marble-floored bathroom and free-standing tub. The Blue Room is also spacious, with a four-poster and lovely views across the long pond to the farm beyond. The bathroom has a shower only.
- Packing tips
- Don’t forget your camera – the sunsets are spectacular, and you’re sharing the farm with some interesting inhabitants, including pelicans, horses, ostriches, porcupines and owls. Make sure you bring an appetite for food and wine.
- Also
- Many of the antique furnishings are for sale. This is a warm-hearted, romantic and homely working farm, so if you want to be waited on hand and foot by meek, uniformed staff, expect slick five-star gloss or don’t like dogs, this is not for you.
Current offers
- Smith card offer
- A bottle of Hawksmoor estate wine, either pinotage or chenin blanc
- Current special offer
Hawksmoor House
Cape Town, South Africa[view map]
- Style
- Cape Dutch country house
- Setting
- Matjieskuil Farm winelands estate
This unique guesthouse stay allows you a nostalgic glimpse into South Africa’s vintage winelands world: lingering breakfasts on the verandah, vineyard walks, sundowners on the stoop and indulgent dinners in an 18th-century dining room. All this bewitchingly unpolished perfection is just 30 minutes from Cape Town, and Hawksmoor House is ideally placed for exploring the winelands – starting with nearby Stellenbosch.
Need to know
- Rooms
- Eight, five in the manor house and three garden suites.
- Rates
- Low season, R1,000; high season, R1,650. Includes breakfast.
- Check-out
- 10.30am. Earliest check-in is 3pm.
- Facilities
- Gardens, vineyards, swimming pool, library, iPod docks, WiFi, massages on request. In rooms: iPod dock, underfloor heating in bathrooms.
- Poolside
- The unheated outdoor pool is set discreetly away from the house, fringed with canvas umbrellas and padded sunloungers – all with views of Table Mountain in the distance, and ostriches just beyond the fence.
- Also
- Dinner is served on Sunday nights, and costs R250 a head, including wine. There a plans for a spa in the near future, as well as self-contained family cottages.
Food & drink
- Hotel restaurant
- On Sunday nights, you can order a fabulous South African meal for R250 each. A cheese platter (R150) is available to order on other days. Or indulge culinary whims on the Aga, after an enjoyable rummage through the kitchen garden.
- Dress code
- So laid-back, you can kick about in your pyjamas all day if you like. You might want to put some actual clothes on for dinner, though.
- Top table
- Evening meals are taken together in the dramatic, chandelier-hung dining room at an antique 18-seater table – to use the term ‘communal dining’ is almost criminal though, given its extraordinary length.
- Last orders
- The fridge and drinks cabinet are yours to raid whatever the hour.
- Room service
- Hawksmoor House is manned by staff during the day, who can sort out drinks or tea for you. Afternoon tea is served every day.
- Hotel bar
- The honesty bar in the pretty library across the hall. Pick out one of the Hawksmoor estate’s own wines, or a sparkling wine from the neighbouring Villiera vineyard and settle into a velvet armchair.
Other facilities
- Children
- This is more of an adult retreat, but under-twos and over-12s are welcome; an extra bed or baby cot can be added to rooms for R375 per night, and babysitting can be arranged for R100 per hour.
Smith card offer
A bottle of Hawksmoor estate wine, either pinotage or chenin blanc
If you're a member of Mr & Mrs Smith, you can get special privileges at every Smith hotel you book through us. Just show your Smith card at check-in to claim the offer featured on every hotel page (like the one above).
Click here to become a Mr & Mrs Smith member
Book this hotel
To book this hotel please click here, or contact our travel team on 0845 034 0700.
Hawksmoor House
Matjieskuil Farm
R304 Klipheuwel Road
Stellenbosch 7600
Western Cape
South Africa