Only one group stays at a time. Lolldaiga House is a private family home on a ridge in Kenya’s Laikipia Highlands, let on exclusive use. Mount Kenya’s snow fills the view to the south; to the north the land drops into the semi-arid plains of the Northern Frontier District. Hornbill calls carry up from the valleys at first light.
Elephants graze the valley below the verandah.
Thick straw-bale walls, lime-washed, hold the highland cold at bay, and wide French windows open onto wrap-around verandahs with easy chairs and swinging beds. Elephants graze the valley below the verandah. An 18-metre heated infinity pool runs along the edge of the ridge. Beyond it lies a working cattle ranch and conservancy of some 49,000 acres, where cattle, camels and Grevy’s zebra share the same grass.
A British family completed the house in 2016 as their own Kenyan retreat, and it still reads as a home. The furniture is hand-carved, the library wood-panelled, and the walls hung with paintings by Kenyan artists. The dining room is built around a fireplace. Breakfast and lunch are served on the terrace above the lawns, and dinner is taken indoors by the fire.
The furniture is hand-carved, the library wood-panelled
Elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and African wild dog range across the Lolldaiga Hills, alongside Grevy’s zebra drawn from the drier country to the north. More than 400 bird species have been recorded in these hills. With almost no other tourist accommodation across the conservancy, a game drive rarely turns up another vehicle. The hills themselves rise through cedar forest and steep wooded valleys.
Lolldaiga House divides into three buildings strung along the ridge. The main house holds two of the six en-suite bedrooms, along with the drawing room, the library and TV room, and a verandah running close to 50 metres, furnished for eating, reading and sleeping through the afternoon. Two guest cottages stand to either side, each with two further bedrooms and its own 20-metre verandah. With only one party in residence, the group staying sets the hours: when meals appear, when the vehicles leave, how much of the day is given to doing nothing at all.
Because Lolldaiga is private conservancy and ranch land rather than a national park, the days are not confined to the daytime game drive. Guides can run night drives, take vehicles off-road, and follow fresh tracks on foot with armed rangers, with no boundary to turn back at. On horseback, the grassland and valley trails open up beyond vehicle range. Other mornings go to the cattle bomas and the Boran herds, or to the granite overhangs holding rock paintings and burial mounds left by people who lived in these hills long before the ranch existed.
On horseback, the grassland and valley trails open up beyond vehicle range.
The Lolldaiga Hills Ranch changed hands in 2021, bought by a Kenyan charitable trust with funding raised by The Nature Conservancy, which now holds a seat on the board of trustees. Cattle did not leave. Around 4,500 cattle, sheep and camels still move across the hills under grazing patterns designed to keep the indigenous grasses growing and the bush from closing in, a management plan approved by the Kenya Wildlife Service. Elephants use the same ground as a corridor. The trust also funds youth education and local jobs, and helps pastoralist neighbours plan their grazing.
Getting there means a short flight from Nairobi to Nanyuki, then a road transfer to the conservancy gate; helicopter transfers can also be arranged. At between 1,700 and 2,300 metres, the Lolldaiga range keeps its mornings cold and its nights colder, which is why the fires are lit and the straw-bale walls matter. Children stay for free at younger ages, and with the house taken on exclusive use, the gardens, the pool and the shape of each day belong to one family group alone.
accommodation
Six en-suite double bedrooms are spread across the three buildings, two in the main house and two in each of the guest cottages, sleeping up to twelve. Wide French windows open from every room onto a private stretch of wrap-around verandah, with easy chairs and a swinging bed, looking toward Mount Kenya or out over the bush.
activities
Game drives by day and after dark, walking safaris with armed rangers, horseback riding across the grasslands, visits to the working cattle operation, and walks to caves holding rock art. Bush breakfasts and sundowners are included. Scenic flights, helicopter excursions and massage can be arranged locally.
conservation
Elephant pressure on neighbouring smallholdings is addressed in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service. The Kenyan charitable trust that owns the surrounding conservancy also funds youth education and local jobs, and supports rangeland and grazing planning for pastoralist neighbours. The conservancy is a member of the Laikipia Conservancies Association.
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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Fly from Nairobi's Wilson airport to Nanyuki on one of the scheduled light aircraft, around an hour in the air and a little longer when the aircraft calls at another strip first, with two or three departures a day. From Nanyuki it is roughly forty minutes by road to the conservancy's main gate and then a last run on ranch tracks up to the house on its ridge. We can also arrange a private charter into Nanyuki, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, which frees you from the timetable and lets you fly on to the next camp at a time of your choosing.
The scheduled aircraft are strict about luggage: fifteen kilograms a person, hand luggage included, and soft bags only, because the holds are small and awkwardly shaped, so a duffel travels better than a hard case. By road from Nairobi it is four to five hours, and we can set that up as a private transfer if you would rather watch the country climb towards Mount Kenya on the way.
Treat it as a malaria area, not a malaria-free one. The house sits below 2,300 metres, and both TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, and the CDC draw their line at 2,500 metres. TravelHealthPro classes Kenya below that height as high risk and lists antimalarial tablets among its recommendations, keeping the very low risk label for Nairobi and the highlands above 2,500 metres, and the CDC names all areas under 2,500 metres, game parks included, as places where it recommends them too.
We are travel planners rather than medical people, so the decision belongs with you and your doctor or a travel clinic, and the advice changes often enough to be worth checking close to departure. Whatever you settle on, the ordinary care against bites still applies once the sun goes: long sleeves at dinner by the fire and repellent on any skin left showing.
Yes, from babies upward. The house prices children from five to fifteen at a reduced rate and lets under-fives stay free, conservancy fee included, so the youngest are expected rather than tolerated. The house's guides run walks cut to fit children, shorter and flatter than the adult ones and with an armed ranger alongside, and the canyon of balanced rocks and cool gullies is a scramble that older children tend to remember longest.
Tell us the ages when you enquire. We will confirm cots and the rooming with the house, put parents in the same cottage as the youngest, and be straight about which outings fit which age: the long ridge walks and the riding, which is priced separately, suit older children, while the shorter walks and the cattle bomas suit almost anyone.
Yes to both. The house has wifi, included in the rate rather than metered, and the television room carries satellite channels and streaming services, so a wet afternoon or a football final is covered. Mobile signal at the house is reasonable rather than strong, enough for calls and messages on the ridge without being something to build a working day around.
If you need to be reachable at a set time, for work or for family, tell us before you travel and we will check the current setup with the house so you are not relying on a guess.
Expect two climates in one day. Afternoons on the ridge sit in the low to mid twenties under a hard equatorial sun, and dawn can be close to twelve degrees, so a morning drive starts in a fleece and a hat and ends in shirtsleeves. The rains come twice, roughly March to May with April the wettest month, and again in October and November. June to September is the driest stretch, December to February is drier again, and a shower is possible in any month this high.
Pack in layers: a warm fleece or down jacket and a woollen hat for the dawn starts and the evenings by the fire, light neutral clothing and a wide-brimmed hat for the middle of the day, high-factor sun cream because the altitude sharpens the sun, closed shoes with grip for the walks and the rock scrambles, swimwear for the pool, and binoculars, which earn their place on a ridge above a valley full of elephants. Keep it all in soft bags for the light aircraft.
The house is let whole, never by the room, and the rate is set for the party rather than per person: a base rate covers the first few guests and each further adult or child is added on top, with under-fives free. There is a minimum stay, and it rises to five nights over Christmas and New Year, so a one-night stop is not what the house is for. We would plan three nights at the least and four or five to fit in the riding, the walks, the cattle and the caves without hurrying any of them.
The rate covers full board, drinks other than champagne and the top-shelf spirits, game drives with the house's vehicle and driver-guide, guided walks with an armed ranger, farm visits, the cave walk, laundry and wifi. The conservancy's daily fee is charged separately for every guest aged five and over, and so are the road transfers from Nanyuki and the riding, and we build all of those into the quote from the start so nothing turns up later as an extra.
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.
