Leydsdorp Hotel

• Property TypeHotel
• Guests32
• Rooms/Units16

Leydsdorp Hotel is a Gravelotte hotel providing accommodation for tourists visiting the Valley of the Olifants region.

About Leydsdorp Hotel

Situated about 10kms from Gravelotte, Leydsdorp Hotel can be found in the former gold rush town of Leydsdorp in Limpopo. Old school Victorian colonial mining meets isolated African farm a grandeur room greets you. The Hotel’s Historical structure, dating from 1891, was restored as best as possibly could, staying true to the original style & character.

Accommodation

Leydsdorp Hotel has ten fully furnished air-conditioned en-suite rooms are available. With satellite TV, WiFi & coffee station.

Set away from the hotel is the Kapiri Hills Bushcamp consisting of self-catering units, a splash pool for those hot summer days, a large wooden deck and boma braai.

Facilities

• Swimming Pool
• Free WiFi
• Parking
• Historical Drives
• Restaurant
• Pub
• Card Facilities
• Tea/Coffee
• Laundry Service
• Air Conditioning
• Television
• Satellite Television
• Bathroom With Shower
• Non Smoking Rooms

Dining

Meals can be enjoyed at the on site restaurant. The famous dining hall still boasts its original high pressed ceilings & wooden floors, giving an ambience of a time long forgotten. For those seeking an entire experience of yesteryear!

The menu is unpretentious, good tasting food is freshly made. The "Dickinson Bro Pub" is a quint place, where one can quench your thirst in the unforgiving heat of the Limpopo's sun.

Braai facilities are available but pre-arrangement with the Hotel is essential.

Experience

For the brave at heart, a visit to the cellar. that once kept food, beverages and the departed, is a must: Some people will be glad to know, that we no longer keep food and beverage refrigerated in the cellar...

Book a historical drive, this is the only way to experience the trials and tribulations of the Leydsdorp diggers. The two and a half to three-hour drive takes you to the old mines, smeltings, old ruins whilst enjoying fauna and flora on your way to the old mine shafts.

Our History

In 1870 Edward Button & James Sutherland reported the discovery of gold in the Murchison mountain range.

However, it was only later in 1886 to 1888 that a gold rush started in Leydsdorp, when the area was declared public diggings (Selati Goldfields), by the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republic & the laying out of the township-Leydsdorp.

By 1876 syndicates & companies started acquiring blocks of claims (Pelgrimsrest, Kaapse Hoop, Babberton area). The heydays of individual diggers had passed. It was time for the diggers to search for new pastures in the Northern parts of South Africa.

Sensing the end of the small-time operation; French Bob (Augusta Robert) led the last rush in South Africa, of the old-time diggers to the Murchison Range in 1888. His Camp becomes the site of Leydsdorp. Named after the state secretary Dr Willem Johannes Leyds.

The Yield of the gold in the area was disappointing. Water was not easily obtained, the death toll was amongst the highest in South Africa. Malaria, sleep Illness, scurvy, bar fights and lion attacks were some of the main causes of death.

Leydsdorp was an unforgiving place, a self-serving place that took more than it gave. Scattered with unmarked graves & lost dreams.

Everyone that came to Leydsdorp either paid with their lives or their livelihoods.
The last of the old school diggers gravitated to more profitable fields, the then capital of the low-veld, Leydsdorp's decline was set in stone and by 1924 it was practically dead.