The Giant’s Castle Game Reserve was established in 1903 and is named after a peak, 3314-m high, that towers imposingly over the valleys of the reserve.  Located in western KwaZulu-Natal Province on the border with Lesotho, the reserve is today an integral part of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, a world heritage site.

Specifically proclaimed for the protection of the last remaining free-roaming populations of eland (the biggest antelope in Africa) in Natal, the area where the reserve is located today was also home to the San-Bushmen, hunter-gatherers that were driven from the area by the middle of the nineteenth century and of whom the only remaining proof of their occupation is the vast number of paintings that adorn the walls of caves and rock overhangs in the area. Ironically so, for the San revered the eland as the most sacred of animals.

One hundred and nine years after the reserve’s foundation, the eland and a wealth of other animals, birds and plants all find protection here, but the magnificent mountain scenery still leaves the most lasting impression on visitors.