Questions about Birkenhead House

Birkenhead House is a luxury hotel located in the seaside town of Hermanus in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is a scenic, 90-minute drive from Cape Town city centre and from Cape Town airport.

Birkenhead House is located next to Voelklip beach in Hermanus which is a short drive from the centre of the town. We offer a complimentary shuttle service to and from the centre of Hermanus for our guests.

Yes, there is high speed, complimentary WiFi throughout Birkenhead House.

Check-out is at 11am and Check-in is at 2pm.

Hermanus is known as the best place on Earth for land-based whale watching. Whales can be seen from June to November, with the best months being September and October. Dolphins can be seen sporadically all year round.

The hotel was named after the HMS Birkenhead. From the hotel terrace there are views out to distant Danger Point in the east where the HMS Birkenhead ran aground and sank in February 1852, bringing the lives of 450 passengers to a shuddering halt. There weren’t enough serviceable lifeboats for all the passengers, so the soldiers stood firm on board famously allowing the women and children to escape first. This gave rise to a protocol known the ‘Birkenhead Drill’ which is now a standard procedure in maritime disasters.

Hermanus Pieters (ca.1778–1837) was a Dutch teacher who arrived in Cape Town in 1815. He settled in Caledon. He often vacationed at the spring (“fontein”) in present-day Hermanus, where he fished and grazed his sheep, and the place eventually became known as “Hermanus Pieters se Fonteyn”. Sixty-five years after his death, the postmaster decided to abbreviate the name to Hermanus.