Halfway between Lydenburg and Dullstroom, where the Highveld ends and the Lowveld begins, that is where you will find The Cowshed. Set amid the spectacular Steenkamp mountain range in the Badfontein Valley, where the air is clean, the smiles are warm and the veld carries its own distinctive perfume, this is a shoes-off, feet-up, hair-down kind of working farm, celebrating the joy of life and friendships as days melt seamlessly from one into the other.

The farm offers four self-catering options. The Cowshed House, built as a house in 1913 and later a working milking shed, has been restored to its former glory: designed around a central living and entertainment area, it sleeps eight, and its covered veranda beside the dam overlooks a vlei alive with abundant birdlife (rise early and you might catch a female serval returning to her den after a night's hunting). The Farmhouse, once the working farmhouse, sleeps seven with an expansive furnished covered verandah made for long afternoons. The Boarding House sleeps sixteen in eight individually themed, retro en-suite rooms around a splendid central farm-style kitchen, stoep, braai areas and a big open-plan lounge with indoor fireplace, ideal for large parties. And the Honeymoon Tent is a luxurious tented suite on a teak deck overlooking one of the picturesque dams, with a magnificent four-poster bed, a Victorian bath, an outdoor shower and an adjacent lounge, kitchen and dining tent.

The Cowshed is also one of the loveliest wedding and event venues in the country: vows under the old Tipuana tree or in the open-air framed chapel overlooking the hills and plains of the Badfontein Valley, with receptions in the character-filled Old Shed. Weddings and stays are run by the same warm team, so wedding parties can sleep the whole celebration on the farm.