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Pause for a moment and experience true farm life: milk a cow, touch a sheep or feed a chicken. Hillston’s diverse landscape provides a range of adventure. Look out for springbuck, fallow deer, blesbuck, mountain rhebuck, antbears, porcupines and more.
Explore rock pools and thick bush in the river in search of fossils. Experience true peace as you hike through the Karoo mountains and valleys.
View more than 100 bird species including the black eagle, booted eagle, and all three korhaan species! Hundreds of flamingoes visit our farm dams in the summer – quite a site. Allow the Karoo air to refresh your senses as you cycle along the springbok trail.
Our cycling or biking routes, all circular, follow serviced gravel roads, up to 250 km long in total. Clean clear skies allow excellent star gazing at night. We have a telescope with which you can inspect the moon’s magnificent craters.
Float on a tube in our 18 m swimming pool to cool off in the summer and catch a tan. Large groups or families enjoy a game of volleyball or boulé on the lawn.
You are welcome to visit our Country Club 6 km away for tennis or bowls on Saturday afternoons.
For the fit and active: beat the 14min 32sec record up and down Hillstonkop!
Visit our 100+ year old Boer War Barracks, now used as the shearing shed for our Merino sheep and Angora goats.
If you visit Hillston during shearing time, you can see our skilled shearers at work. All our shearing is done by hand.
We also have a Boer War Blockhouse which has been converted into the braai lapa at the Hillston Cottage. You can see where the bullet holes penetrated through the corrugated iron!
Escape for a moment…
In the words of the late Joan Southey, from Footprints in the Karoo:
“Slowly you start picking up the subtle Karoo veld sounds. Perhaps the Karoo lark as it soars into the sky with a rattle of fluttering wings, hovers and then drops to the ground with a long drawn-out whistle, only to rise fluttering once again. A pair of crows fly past squawking to each other. Hearing baby lambs calling to their mothers in the distance, you wonder if the crows are off to harass the ewes with their newly-born young.”
“As you walk, lost in Nature’s kingdom, you are startled by korhaans which suddenly take off almost under your feet and fly up obliquely, croaking loudly. Insects are busy everywhere – in the air and underfoot. You wonder why you ever thought you were alone.”
“A fat dassie (rock rabbit) crouching on his rocky ledge gives a metallic-like warning as you glance up at the little koppie, and a family of ground squirrels perch on their hind legs on top of an ant heap, watching you inquisitively.”
“Walk in the veld and all kinds of delicious scents assail you. The variety of little Karoo bushes all have their own individual fragrance…”
Some activities in and around Hillston Farm include:
Bird Watching
Stargazing
Swimming
Bowling
Tennis
Cycling
