Calum and Sophie Macfarlane welcome guests to their home on a hilltop in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Northern Kenya, at roughly 1,750 metres. Mount Kenya rises to the south, and on the northern horizon stand the Mathews Range and Ol Lolokwe, the mountain the Samburu hold sacred. Sophie’s family has been connected to this land for five generations.
Rhinos and elephants gather at the waterhole below the lawn.
Guests eat at the family table, the Macfarlanes’ children usually somewhere nearby. Rhinos and elephants gather at the waterhole below the lawn. Lewa is home to black rhino, and from this hilltop sightings are consistent. Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe and Beisa oryx cross the open ground, and lions and hyenas carry to the cottages after dark.
In 1922 Sophie’s great-grandfather, Alec Douglas, settled the cattle ranch then known as Lewa Downs. He handed it to his daughter Delia and her husband, David Craig, on one condition. He asked them always to leave space for the wildlife. The Craigs went on to guide guests on foot across the ranch.
He asked them always to leave space for the wildlife.
Their son Ian turned the ranch into a wildlife conservancy in 1995. His sister Sue guided safaris professionally through the 1970s, then tired of the long stints away from home and began hosting guests herself. Sophie and Calum took over in 2012, after four years managing a camp in the Maasai Mara.
The main house is a stone-and-thatch homestead on the crown of the hill, high-ceilinged, with a veranda running the length of the view and lawns falling away around it. The earth pods below were drawn up by Sophie’s father, David Brown: curved walls contoured into the slope, engineered to hold an even temperature through the heat of the day, built to harvest their own rainwater. The furniture is rough-hewn hardwood, cut and carved locally. Below the lawn a free-form pool sits above the drop into the valley, and the fire in the main hearth gets going as the temperature falls.
Lewa is a private conservancy rather than a national park, so the guiding is not confined to daylight hours on set roads. Calum leads the bush walks, holding an FGASA trails qualification and a degree in zoology, and reads tracks and ground closely. Horses and camels go out in the afternoons, open to riders of most abilities, and moving among giraffe and zebra takes the sound of an engine out of the encounter. Night drives with spotlights turn up aardvark, caracal and bat-eared fox.
Mornings start cold at this altitude, first light turning the snow on Mount Kenya orange.
Days spent off the conservancy are worth building in. The Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve, next door, has a canopy walkway suspended above the forest floor, and pools fed by waterfalls running off Mount Kenya. On Lewa itself, guided walks reach prehistoric sites and old warrior graves, and rock gongs that still ring when struck. Helicopters lift off the lawn for the peaks of Mount Kenya, or north towards Lake Turkana. Children get their own version of all of it, from tracking exercises to short walks hunting for insects and prints.
Meals move with the weather and the hour. Mornings start cold at this altitude, first light turning the snow on Mount Kenya orange. Breakfast is taken out onto the lawn under the acacias, lunch beside the pool, and dinner is for everyone at one long table in the main house, with Calum and Sophie hosting. Vegetables, fruit and herbs come from the organic garden below the house, and the cooking runs from European staples through to Kenyan, Indian and Asian flavours.
accommodation
Seven units in all: three family cottages, each with two bedrooms, one king and one twin, opening off a shared veranda rather than into each other. Four earth pods are single units contoured into the hillside, with curved walls, wood floors, walk-in showers and, in three of them, outdoor stone baths. Beds carry mosquito nets, and children of any age are welcome.
activities
Day and night game drives, guided walking safaris, horse and camel rides, bush breakfasts and sundowners, and birding across the grasslands. Excursions reach Ngare Ndare Forest and prehistoric sites on Lewa. Private conservancy status permits night drives and off-road walking not allowed in Kenya's national parks.
conservation
A conservation levy on every stay supports the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, funding ranger patrols, rhino monitoring, clinics, water infrastructure, microfinance and schools. Ian Craig, Sophie's uncle, co-founded the Northern Rangelands Trust, whose model helped return black rhino to the community-run Sera Conservancy.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
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By light aircraft to the Lewa airstrip, on the scheduled service from Nairobi's Wilson airport, and then fifteen to twenty minutes by vehicle to the house. We can also arrange a private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, timed to an international arrival.
Soft bags only on the scheduled flights, around fifteen kilograms a person including hand luggage. Driving up from Nairobi is possible but it is a long day, and we rarely recommend it when the flight is under an hour.
Officially, yes. Both TravelHealthPro, which carries the UK's official travel health advice, and the CDC put the altitude above which Kenyan malaria risk falls away at 2,500 metres, and Laikipia sits below that line, so both class it as a risk area and recommend antimalarial tablets.
We do not give medical advice. We are travel planners rather than doctors, so the choice of tablets, and whether they suit everyone in the party, belongs in a conversation between you and your own doctor or a travel clinic. What we can be useful on is the non-medical part: cover up once the light goes, and carry repellent.
Yes, all ages are taken, and child-minding can be arranged at extra cost. It is run as a family home by Calum and Sophie Macfarlane, which is exactly why it works with children.
Lewa itself helps: rhino tracking, horse riding and camel walks give children something to do beyond sitting in a vehicle. Tell us the ages at enquiry and the days get planned around them rather than around a standard programme.
Highland weather: dry warmth by day and a real chill after dark, because the conservancy sits at around 1,700 metres. The long rains fall around April and May, the short rains in November, and the months between stay largely dry.
Pack warm layers for dawn drives and dinner outside, neutral colours for the bush, and serious sun protection, because the altitude sharpens the sun. Closed shoes if you plan to walk, and binoculars. Soft-sided bags for the flight.
The dry months are the pick: late June to September, and again December to February, with clear skies, firm ground and wildlife gathered at the water. July to September is the strongest game viewing of the year on Lewa.
The green months make their own case. Fresh grass pulls the plains game through, rates drop, and January and February are superb for birds. Lewa's rhino are there in every season, so the heart of a stay does not depend on the calendar.
rated five stars by our clients
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our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
