Travel to McGregor

dramatically cut off when the main road was abandoned

McGregor is a small town situated in the Overberg area of the Western Cape.

This gem of a place is situated at the upper end of the historic Boesmanskloof wagon trail route which leads up from the coast into the farmlands of the Overberg.

It used to be a busy trading outpost, which was particularly well known for being the main source of whipstocks for the Cape Colony. However the village was left high and dry when the main road was driven along a completely different route and the wagon trail fell into disrepair.

These days McGregor is a remote and very pleasant settlement, whose elegant Victorian high street quickly reduces into a small dirt track at the far end, before coming to a complete dead end (other than the hiking trail that leads on down the old route).

This high street is peppered with quirky little shops, most of which seem to have more than one speciality; ‘library and coffee shop’, ‘artisan glassware and bicycle rental’ and so on. It seems like you need to have your fingers in more than one pie to make ends meet around here.

The village contains a number of small guest-houses, but the stand-out option is the remarkable Temenos Retreat, whose extensive gardens simply have to be explored.

We tend to most often recommend McGregor as a nice place to break for lunch when driving between Franschhoek and the Little Karoo or De Hoop areas, but it can also be visited on a day trip from Franschhoek, perhaps in conjunction with visits to the wineries of the Robertson area.

The restaurant at Temenos Retreat may not be to the elevated standards of more funky places in the main Winelands, but we’ve always found it to be a very relaxed, friendly and enjoyable place to enjoy a leisurely lunch.

If you do decide to stay here, then activities include hiking, mountain-biking, horse-riding and tours of the local vineyards. Personally we find a leisurely stroll around the peaceful residential streets to be wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable, it’s like stepping in time.

Oh, and the little museum is mildly interesting too, with a suitable aroma of mothballs. It turns out that McGregor was indeed a Scottish settler.

Our guests rarely choose to deploy nights here in McGregor, which is a shame, since it really is such a pleasant backwater. If you are able to deploy more time to a self-drive explication of the Western Cape, then maybe you can find a few days for this lovely place.

features in long self-drive trips