The Brackenhurst Botanical Garden and Forest (BBGF) at our Highland Forest Hub is now renowned as the first-ever accredited botanic garden in Kenya, and due to CER-K’s restoration efforts, with integral support from local community members and other partners, it has turned into a flourishing indigenous forest.
It all began in 1914 as a small farm on the green hill of Tigoni near Limuru Town. Famously called “nothing but mist,” Tigoni was a sanctuary for vibrant wildlife and dazzling forests, forming the southern tip of the Aberdare ecosystem, one of the world’s natural treasures. It was predominantly a forest area with a wide range of flora and fauna, but today 99.9% of the trees, birds and wildlife, have been lost to felling by encroaching communities to create farms and tea estates.
The farm was called “Three Trees Farm” due to the three large Muna trees on the property. It was meant to be a simple coffee farm but when World War I began, the farm owners started providing holidays for British soldiers.
The holiday centre lived through several decades, an earthquake, and a well-concealed leopard, before the Baptist Mission of Kenya bought it in 1964 and turned it into Brackenhurst Hotel & Conference Centre. They developed its beautiful grounds for use by corporate, church, and other visitors for team-building, conferencing, and adventuring.