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Eighty years on the mountain

A family of leopards seen sunning on a rock gave the place its name. The hotel came in 1946, the Queen Mother in 1953, the course in 1993, the Constitution in 2013.

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Where the Bvumba's cloud forest meets the escarpment, a hotel that has kept its 1946 manners: table d'hôte dinner, tea on the Terrace, a fire in the lounge on cold nights. Guests have the run of the estate, the golf course, the game park and the Castle sundowner at no charge, thirty kilometres of mountain road from Mutare and 290 km from Harare.

1946

The Seymour-Smith family open Leopard Rock with room for forty guests and a nine-hole course, at 4,745 feet on the flank of Chinyakwaremba. Their own house, the Castle, stands on the ridge above.

9 July 1953

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret arrive from Umtali on the Royal Tour of Southern Rhodesia. The official programme lists the day at Leopard Rock with no engagements. British Pathé filmed the party on the tower steps and the Queen Mother in the rock garden.

The 1990s

The Taberer family buy the hotel and adds the bedroom wing that takes it to 120 guests. The eighteenth hole carries his name.

1993

Peter Matkovich's eighteen-hole course opens on Penncross bent greens. In July 1993, on her visit to Zimbabwe, Diana, Princess of Wales, is photographed repeatedly in a Leopard Rock T-shirt.

2011 and 2012

Named Best Resort Hotel by the Association of Zimbabwe Travel Agents in both years, following the relaunch under Cambria Africa.

2013

The closing negotiations of Zimbabwe's new Constitution are held in the room now named for it. CNN Travel names the course one of the ten best in Africa.

2014

The Castle returns to the estate and reopens as a venue.

The official programme page for Thursday 9 July 1953
The official programme of the Royal Tour, Thursday 9 July 1953: "At Leopard Rock Hotel (altitude 4,745 ft). No official engagements."
A group photograph signed Elizabeth R and Margaret
Signed "Elizabeth R" and "Margaret" during the 1953 tour, and kept at the hotel. The photograph itself was taken in Salisbury.
The hotel and its pool, photographed in the early years
The hotel and its pool, photographed in the early years.
The Queen Mother on the turret steps, 1953
The turret steps, July 1953.
There is nowhere more beautiful in Africa.
Attributed to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother after her stay in July 1953