Primrose Cottage

Primrose Cottage is a stone cottage owned by Denise and her husband David, an amateur astronomer and retired tour manager at the Observatory. The cottage is situated on grounds with fruit trees and grapevines. It offers accommodation in a double room with an en-suite bathroom and a twin-bedded room with a private bathroom. All rooms are equipped with heaters and electric blankets for the cold winter nights. The cottage provides undercover parking for vehicles to shelter them from frost.

Primrose Cottage has an excellent music collection and an extensive library for guests who wish to relax and experience the snow in comfort. An authentic English breakfast is served in the yellow wood dining room. The owners, Denise and David, welcome visitors to their cottage, which is located on the way to Matjiesfontein. Guests are encouraged to take time to relax during the drive, enjoy the Karoo scenery, and stop occasionally to listen to the silence. The climb through the Verlatenkloof pass offers stunning views, after which the telescopes at the observatory can be clearly seen on the eastern horizon.

Sutherland is renowned for the Southern African Large Telescope, inaugurated in November 2005 at the already world-famous observatory. Visitors are advised to take advantage of the regular, extremely interesting tours of the observatory telescopes, including the visitors center and the SALT project. For those interested in history, there are military graves in the Boer war cemetery, and a tour of the NG church, where soldiers were billeted, is a must. A door containing graffiti written by the soldiers can still be seen. Sutherland is also the home of the Louw brothers, well-known Afrikaans authors, and their house is now a museum.

Sutherland has a species count of 191 birds, more than 20 of which are endemic. Most of these endemic species can be seen within the grounds of Primrose Cottage at the right time. The owners, David and Denise, can identify these birds for guests and point out the constellations visible in the incredibly clear night skies over Sutherland.