Built into a mountain.
A modernist ecological estate at the foot of Skoorsteenberg in Hout Bay — at the centre of the Cape's grand circuit, a world away from the city.
Welcome
A secluded haven, perched atop the world.
The house looks east into the Orange Kloof reserve and the hidden side of Table Mountain; west across the Hout Bay valley to the Atlantic. The slope is steep enough that the city feels far; the road down is short enough that it isn't. Between Camps Bay, Constantia and Noordhoek. Three minutes to the start of Chapman's Peak.
Three accommodations
One estate. Three ways to stay.
Main House
Roughly four thousand three hundred square feet across three levels, built into the mountain slope. Designed by South Africa's Wolf Architects as a living ecosystem — comprehensive passive design, a self-regulating wetland natural pool that wraps the north-east corner, innovative interaction between timber, solar glass, concrete and stone.
Guest Cottage
The Guest Cottage on its own stone foundation among the olive grove. Iroko-clad walls, floor-to-ceiling glass, a slatted timber pergola over a wraparound deck. Inside: a kitchen, a woven-pattern tile backsplash; a linen-and-kilim living area; a wood-fired stove and a single bedroom that opens onto the deck. Outside: the same mountain that the Main House looks at, and the same fynbos slope. Bookable year-round — including when the owners are in residence at the Main House.
Writers Cottage
Under construction. Literally. The Writers Cottage is being built into the slope above the Main House — a single quiet room for one or two, with a desk against the glass, a wall of books, a small fireplace, a bed, and the mountain through every window. Available from October 2026. These are the architect's renders; in October they become photos.
The property in three frames
Two mountains meet
The deck looks out over the Orange Kloof reserve and the hidden side of Table Mountain. Not a neighbour, not a road, not a light after dark — and one of the world's great cities twenty-five minutes down the hill.
Fynbos in every direction
Ten thousand square metres of the Cape Floral Kingdom — one of earth's six. King protea, pincushion leucospermums, the medicinal buchu. A trail leads from the top gate to the Skoorsteenberg peaks. Sugarbirds at sunset.
Built of the place
Sand-coloured stone quarried on-site for the ground floor. Moon-phase-harvested local pine above. Garapa deck. Floor-to-ceiling glass. A natural boulder embedded between the floors, peeking out at the open-air entrance.
The ritual
Heat. Plunge. Rest. Repeat.
A wood-fired sauna and an open-air cold plunge in a quiet corner of the estate. The sauna fires on request; the plunge runs all the time. No extra charge, no schedule — it comes with the Main House.
The sauna ritual →Hear first
The house opens a few weeks a year.
The Main House is available when we travel. When dates open, this list hears before Airbnb and before anywhere else. We write rarely, and only when there is something to say.
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