Ol Donyo Sabuk - Lord's Castle

Lord's Castle

Further east of Ol-Donyo, the building that was Macmillan's home, a fort by any definition, sits in splendour. More than three-quarters of the house is under key and lock. A part of it houses the Muka Mukuu Co-operative Society, a local failed outfit, managed by elderly locals.

Covering a ground enough for three basketball pitches, the villagers have spent more than a century wondering why a couple that had no children put up such a huge dwelling place. So large is the building that Lord Macmillan and his wife would spend one year in one wing of the house, then migrate to the other in the second half of the year. The locals are yet to figure out how they can benefit from such an obvious tourist attraction site.

It was in this house that Macmillan housed his friend and former American President Theodore Roosevelt, as he wrote his biography. In fact, it was not the first time Roosevelt was spending time there. He had been there before he became president while on a series of hunting trips. Thanks to the ribald gang he joined on the way, his conduct during his stay at Donyo Sabuk almost cost him his presidency. The other prominent person who had stayed in the house was the wartime British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. The house also served as a jailhouse during the Second World War. It is also one of Kenya's most famous film crew jaunts.

Macmillan's house is a museum now.