This stretch of Cape Winelands land carries a tangled ownership history reaching back to Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the Cape Colony governor whose massive estate was confiscated and auctioned off by the Dutch after local farmers, led by Adam Tas, successfully petitioned Holland over his corrupt practices in 1707. The portion that became Erinvale was known simply as Welgelegen, well-situated, and passed through a succession of old Cape families, the Theunissens, Munniks, Morkels, and others, over the following century.
Helena Munnik is credited with building the original homestead around 1817, giving the property its Cape Dutch architectural character. Marthinus Theunissen, one of Welgelegen’s later owners, was among the founding farmers who established the village of Somerset West itself. The estate operated as a private farmstead for generations before opening as a hotel in 1994, when the developers took care to preserve its 18th and 19th century buildings alongside a new Gary Player-designed golf course.