There is something profoundly pertinent about the way Mura Retreat has come into being. As if affirming our human role within the delicate and complex ecosystem of existence. A farmhouse just outside of Barrydale, burnt to the ground, and left to rest in its ashes. With its only salvageable remnants reflecting the vitality of the Karoo landscape. It summoned its owners from the stars, exposed its soul from the slate, the stone and the soil, and furnished them with a vision of its reincarnation.
Mura Retreat sits lightly within its 200 hectares of rugged terrain, with the Langeberg mountains and signature fynbos veld doing most of the visual work. Built on the foundations of the original farmhouse that had been lost to fire, rather than erase the history, the owners allowed this hideaway to inform what came next. Its architecture is subtle, deliberately simple and curvaceous – almost monastic – in constant conversation with the light and the landscape.
The spaces generously unfold across seven bedrooms and a gliding sequence of areas that master the craft of architectural meditation. A cloister flanking the courtyard that rests beneath the dappled silhouettes of a fever tree. A serene yoga room that also serves as a gym, fully equipped for functional training at its best. Light and airy living, dining and reclining areas, and a show kitchen supported by a discreet preparation kitchen and scullery.
Throughout the home, as you meander your way down the corridors, beneath the archways, and around the curves, simplicity escorts you into every space. In one of the bathrooms, there’s a freestanding bathtub, positioned towards the landscape, framing the views, with built-in shelving making use of the recess beneath a deep-set window. Drawing all the surrounding greenery inside.
The materials are grounded, making their earthy statements that come from the accoya, the iroko, the African ivory granite and white sandstone. A single branch, suspended above the dining table, becomes a sculptural gesture. Found while walking the veld, it was chosen for the traces of char and age still held within its wood. Transformed into a light, carrying the memory of the land into the house. A repurposed piece of ball-and-claw furniture has been stripped back and reworked. Its old screw holes remain visible, like small records of its former life.
The same instinct runs through the artworks. A Dylan Lewis sculpture in the sitting room has a distinctly primal, elemental quality about it. A piece of bush, sourced as a souvenir, has also been up-cycled into a light. Every object has a story to tell, and occupies its space with belonging. Imploring you to do exactly the same.
Fire room, hot tub, mountain pool
At the helm of the home lies the fire room. A space conceived entirely around the ancient ritual of gathering beside a flame. Forming the heartbeat of the retreat, that’s intrinsically stitched into the ongoing narrative of something intimate, elemental and poetically profound.
And then there’s the swimming pool. A hypnotic body of water that mirrors the mountains, its surface taking on the sun’s shifting hues upon the rock rising above it. As daylight fades, with no competing lights for miles around, the night’s sky reveals itself with resonance to the name Mura. Drawn from a Khoisan word referring to the two pointer stars that guide the eye towards the Southern Cross, the name carries a deeper significance within San cosmology, where the constellation is understood as the eyes of a lion watching over the land. Once again, that summoning of the ancestral bones of the home, to its owners, for fruition of its rebirth.
How will each day unfold? The elevated stone platform, one of the few structures to survive the fire, remains a favourite place to begin the day. Walking the veld down to the fire pit for meditative moments around the flames. There’s also a yoga or meditation plinth for you to elevate those revitalising moments even further, just a 10-minute stroll away from the house.
Perhaps some mountain-biking through the Lemoenshoek valley, along the ravines. Swimming, practising yoga or settling beside a window, pondering the other routes that got you to this view. There’s also the hot tub for that, or a table outside as the sun lowers behind the mountains. A braai at dusk with the birds and the last light before it sinks behind the hills.
What is it that makes this farmhouse so unique? What sets it apart from any other farmhouse in the Karoo? It’s a place to live with intention, to make something that will outlast the moment, and to remember that we are part of a much larger rhythm. The mountains, the stars, the birds, the flowers, the changing light. The Karoo has a way of putting all of that back into perspective. And more often than not, that is exactly what our role as humans is. Especially when on holiday. Sometimes, life has to be dismantled before another version can emerge. Not necessarily better or easier, but more considered, and more closely aligned with what matters most. Mura Retreat appears to be an expression of that process.
Written by Colleen Ogilvie
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