Barry House is the original manor house on Riverton, one of South Africa's leading thoroughbred stud farms, on the R317 wine route 4.4 km outside Robertson with the Breede River running through the property. It is let exclusively to one party at a time: six bedrooms and five bathrooms sleeping twelve, or fourteen at a push, which makes it a natural fit for a large family gathering, a group of friends or a birding party.

The house has kept its period character. Rooms are named for the Barry family, with Victorian and slipper baths, an outdoor shower off the Joseph Barry room, percale linen, dressing gowns and mattresses guests write home about. The dining room table seats fourteen for a formal dinner, the TV lounge has the full DSTV bouquet, a fireplace, a table tennis table and a double fridge for drinks, and the veranda looks out over the horse paddocks with fans overhead for warm afternoons. The kitchen is fully equipped with gas, electric and microwave ovens, a dishwasher and a reverse osmosis drinking tap, braai wood is complimentary, and an inverter keeps the wifi, TV, fridges and fans running through load-shedding. Housekeeping is optional.

For couples there is the Wine Down Cottage, a contemporary conversion of a cow barn standing on the dam wall with the sky reflected in the water below. It has a king bedroom with an oval bath and shower, an open-plan kitchen, living and dining room with an indoor braai opening onto a sheltered patio, an outdoor shower, and, joined to the cottage by an outdoor reading nook, a dedicated office with a view over the dam that makes it a genuine work-from-anywhere retreat. A kayak is available, and there is swimming and fishing in the dam. The cottage takes no children, as the dam is unfenced.

The birding is the real draw: 162 species have been recorded on the farm by BirdLife Overberg teams, 116 of them positively identified from the Barry House garden alone. Key species include Forest Buzzard, European Bee-eater, Tambourine Dove, African Black Duck, African Fish Eagle, Pale Chanting Goshawk, African Marsh Harrier, Fiery-necked Nightjar and Rufous-chested Sparrowhawk. A water furrow along the eastern side of the garden draws seedeaters and local birds to drink and bathe within view of the Victorian gazebo, sparrowhawks hunt through the branches, and late-summer skies fill with swallows, swifts and martins, with at least 39 migratory species visiting in summer. The wider Langeberg region holds 68 endemic and near-endemic species, some 44% of all southern African endemics, with the Vrolijkheid and Dassieshoek nature reserves and the Fish Eagle trail at Van Loveren close by.

Riverton sits among the Robertson wine estates: Springfield, Cloverfield, Bon Courage, De Wetshof, Van Loveren, Silverthorn and Weltevrede are all neighbours, with river cruises at Viljoensdrift, horse riding four farms away, and Robertson's restaurants and shops 5 km down the road.