O'Leleshwa
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The estate in pictures

Gallery

The houses, the gardens, the table and the country beyond, set down in that order — and best taken slowly.

The villas

Stone, thatch and lamplight.

The houses close up — the arched stone, the vault of the makuti thatch, the hearths, the baths and the beds.

A stone tower corner of O'Leleshwa under thatch, an arched window and a wall lantern lit in warm evening light, agapanthus below.
The tower corner at O'Leleshwa, its lantern lit at the end of the day.
Looking up in the O'Leleshwa great room: the makuti thatch roof structure rising over the suspended black cone fireplace, bar and seating below.
The great room, the full height of the thatch above the suspended fireplace.
A tan leather armchair with a triangle block-printed cushion beside a blue steel-framed arched window, stone wall beyond.
A leather armchair by the arched window, its cushion block-printed in triangles.
The O'Leleshwa facade seen through palm fronds: stone arches, arched steel-framed windows and a makuti thatch roof.
The main house behind its palms — stone arches under makuti thatch.
O'Lorien from the lower garden — rough estate stone under the thatched gable, the slatted pole pergola over the deck, white roses on the balustrade.
O'Lorien from the lower garden — roses on the balustrade.
The mezzanine landing at O'Leleshwa: carved masks in underlit arched alcoves, rattan dome pendants and a wrought-iron balustrade.
The mezzanine landing — carved masks lit in their alcoves.
Strands of repurposed Malawian glass hanging past a round woven black mirror on mirror-flecked plaster.
The Malawian-glass chandelier, seen past the woven mirror.
A conical plaster fireplace hood above a lit fire basket set in a brick-lined corner.
A plastered cone hood over its fire basket, lit in the brick corner.
A freestanding grey stone bath centred on a half-moon plaster niche flecked with mirror, framed by black steel doors.
The stone bath, centred on its mirror-flecked arch.
A bedroom looking through black steel-framed doors to a bathroom with a sage terrazzo arch and grey tub, a desk nook at the right.
From the bed, through steel doors, to the bath beyond.
The upstairs bedroom at O'Leleshwa in daylight: three arched windows, a timber headboard partition and woven ceiling panels.
The upstairs bedroom by day, arched windows down one wall.
A bed set symmetrically beneath a plaster arch niche on a lime-washed wall at O'Lorien, botanical cushions, black sconces and caned nightstands.
O'Lorien's bed, head-on beneath its plaster arch.
The gardens

Two years of drawing, five thousand plants.

Eileen Neylan designed them over two years. The walls they sit against are Joseph Kimani's dry stone.

Sweeping curved sandstone steps rising to the pool terrace, flowering rosemary in the foreground, palms and a lava-stone wall beyond.
Curved sandstone steps to the pool terrace, rosemary in flower.
The free-form pool with loungers and parasols under a dramatic storm sky, a palm at the left and hills in the distance.
The pool under a storm sky, the valley hills beyond.
A pole towel ladder hung with white towels and topped by a lantern, against a dry-stone wall framed by garden foliage.
A pole towel ladder against the dry-stone wall.
A clawfoot bath against the stone wall of O'Lorien's walled garden in soft shade, ferns and cordyline in the foreground, towels on a ladder.
One of O'Lorien's two walled-garden baths, deep in the ferns.
A stone arch doorway opening onto a walled garden path, a log-rail gate, bougainvillea and a palm beyond.
A stone arch onto the walled path, bougainvillea past the gate.
The arched, thatched facade of O'Leleshwa seen above terraced flower gardens of daisies and pelargonium, a palm at the left.
The thatched arches above a terrace of daisies.
The O'Leleshwa stone facade from below: an arched loggia under thatch, an agapanthus terrace and a stone retaining wall.
Agapanthus along the retaining wall, below the loggia.
A band of steel-framed windows set into a stone wall, raffia lampshades inside and the garden reflected in the glass.
The garden given back by a band of steel-framed glass.
The films

Five short films.

Nothing plays until you ask it to. Sound on, if you can.

Sunrise over Lake Naivasha, from the estate.
The country beyond the gate — a short film.
The kitchen, the grow house, the table.
Kasarani — the village behind the estate.
TAFA — football, and everything around it.
The table

Each villa has its own kitchen, and its own chef.

Much of it is grown up the hill in the kitchen garden, cooked in the house, and carried out to whichever table suits the hour.

Coffee poured from a steel pot into a speckled mug at sunrise, steam rising, soft garden light behind.
Coffee poured into the light, first thing.
A hand pouring from a cast-iron teapot into a blue speckled cup and saucer, a figure in white soft-focused behind.
Tea from the cast-iron pot, mid-morning.
A stack of French toast with bruleed banana, syrup, strawberry and blueberries on a pale plate, set on a blue batik cloth.
French toast, banana bruleed, on the kanga cloth.
A salad of grilled halloumi, olives and pomegranate in an olive-wood bowl with carved servers, on a layered blue kanga table.
Grilled halloumi, olives and pomegranate in the olive-wood bowl.
A server in a kitenge-trimmed shirt carrying a bowl of prawns on mash with peas and marigold petals.
Prawns and mash, carried out to the table.
A stone and red-brick wood-fired pizza oven with an arched mouth, standing among garden foliage.
The wood-fired oven, brick-arched, out among the foliage.
A hand spooning tomato risotto with basil from a cast-iron pot at a table dressed in blue batik, a glass of white wine beside it.
Tomato risotto, straight from the pot.
A scoop of sorbet on seeded granola crumble in a green-glazed dish set on a rattan charger.
Sorbet on seeded crumble, in the green-glazed dish.
The place

The valley, the lake, and Kasarani.

1,884 metres up, ninety minutes from Nairobi by road, and a village at the foot of the hill.

A dawn aerial of the hilltop estate in silver-green leleshwa scrub, Lake Naivasha and hazy Rift hills beyond.
The hill at first light, Lake Naivasha pale beyond.
A great white pelican in profile on the pale blue water of Lake Naivasha, drowned acacia snags soft-focused behind.
A great white pelican on the lake, among the drowned acacias.
A smiling Maasai guide in a red check shuka with binoculars round his neck, a giraffe standing tall on the open plain behind him.
A Maasai guide with his binoculars, giraffe on the plain behind.
O'Lerai's timber deck under its pole pergola, the glass table and six chairs, the bush running out toward the lake plain.
The deck at O'Lerai, and the bush beyond the rail.
A dusk aerial of Kasarani: a dusty football pitch mid-game, village rooftops, greenhouses and golden haze.
Kasarani at dusk, a match under way on the pitch.
A smiling Wezesha team member holding a wooden tray filled with colourful beadwork, the centre's hand-lettered mission board behind her.
A tray of beadwork at the Wezesha centre in Kasarani.

A photograph carries only so much of a place. The houses themselves are the next thing to look at.

The villas → Book now →