My first camping trip was to Grogans Castle just outside Taverta.
Grogan's Castle
Seven kilometres from the Voi– Taveta road, Grogan's Castle, a white mansion on an isolated hill rising from the plain along the track to Lake Jipe, deserves a little detour. This magnificent historical residence was built in the 1930s by Ewart Grogan, one of the most influential early colonists. His reputation was founded on a walk from the Cape to Cairo, which he undertook in 1898. He was a visionary and had a huge reputation which was such that Grogan was able to dictate terms to the governor and was the founder of the deepwater harbour in Mombassa.At the peak of his prosperity, he owned over 2500 square kilometres of land in Kenya.
The "castle", evidently built as his residence near the sisal estates, is under slow renovation -The Castle can be visited if you tip the askari (ask for him at the settlement of "Grigan" at the foot of the hill, a 1km walk). It's an strange looking building, with both european and arabic design with tin roofs. There are two enormous circular living rooms with spectacular 360-degree views out towards Kilimanjaro and Lake Jipe. The huge bedrooms have mosquito-screened bed niches, whose steel mesh make them look more like animal cages.
A fairly accurate account of the Castle residence. I spent the best part of my childhood here. Col. Ewart Scott Grogan's Estate consisted of Taveta Sisal Estate ( The mainstay of his asset here) Ziwani Sisal Estate and Jipe. My Father was his Chief Estate Engineer, Confidante and was very close to Ewart. I have been of late reading a number of accounts about Ewart Grogan and also a number of publications on his life and achievements. Almost all of then are full of historic inaccuracies. I am in the process of writing an account of my life and will be devoting a very subtantial number of chapters and accounts on this region. Hopefully it will correct some anomolous errors and also attribute the the success of some of the successes of the achievements in this region to the right people.
ReplyDeleteIs the book out? Title?
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