Giraffe Manor,Luxury,Kenya,Karen Blixen

Just a few miles from the centre of Nairobi and yet seemingly in the country, the labour of love of Sir David Duncan, The Giraffe Manor is home to orphaned and protected giraffe - and also a remarkable place to stay.

The Giraffe Manor, built in 1932 by Sir David Duncan, is situated on one hundred and twenty acres of land just a few miles from the centre of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. In 1974 Jock Leslie-Melville, grandson of a Scottish earl, and his wife Betty, who also founded the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife (AFEW), bought the Manor. They moved five babies, of the highly endangered Rothschild giraffe, to the property where they have been successfully reared ever since - and they now have their own babies.

When Jock died, Betty decided to open her house, now called the Giraffe Manor, to visitors. Exclusive, spacious and elegant, it is the only place in the world that you can feed giraffe from your second floor bedroom window, over the lunch table and at the front door. Guests can feed and photograph the giraffe and the warthogs at the Manor and  wander through the adjoining forest to view the bushbuck, dik-dik and other wildlife. The manor itself is very comfortable and the four double rooms are furnished very comfortably with antiques, befitting such a grand home - one bedroom has all of Karen Blixen’s (of ‘Out of Africa’ fame) furniture that she gave to Jock’s mother when she left Kenya.

 
 
All meals, prepared by the gourmet chef, tea, wine and cocktails are included and guests are made to feel completely ‘at home’, no matter how brief their stay, as in a houseparty of old. A stay at the manor is a truly magnificent experience and one that will not be forgotten.