Buy one Pig — get 10,000 tales free
Christmas shopping can drive you to drink.
Or you can buy South Africa’s oldest continuously licensed pub, which is up for grabs in the Eastern Cape town of Bathurst.
The 190-year-old Pig and Whistle Inn is not everybody’s idea of a yuletide gift, but it has been bringing good cheer to visitors and locals alike for almost two centuries. It comes complete with all furniture, fittings, paintings, well-equipped commercial kitchen, restaurant, 10-bedroom hotel and at least 10,000 stories, frequently of wild and uninhibited behaviour.
Yours for only R12m.
“Sold as a lucrative going concern, and oozing character from every original exposed wooden beam, parquet flooring, wood fireplace, Victorian ball-and-claw bath and a stained-glass door, the building began life as a blacksmith forge, and is now the heartbeat of this appealing town, backed by almost two centuries of history,” says local Pam Golding estate agent Robyn Cloete of the landmark building dating to 1832.
Seller Gavin Came says he is exiting despite a profitable year.
“For my wife and I it feels a bit like stepping down from a rugby team while on a winning streak,” he said.
They intended to sell in 2020, to coincide with the town’s 200th anniversary. Covid-19 scuppered that plan, resulting in a three-year delay. “In March 2020 the hotel shut down, and we had to refund all the deposits — that put paid to selling it in 2020. But in 2022 we had the best financial year ever since we bought it [in 2011].”
Some of the hotel’s highlights are documented in a Bathurst Facebook page, which includes a photograph of a man mounted on his horse inside the lounge — prompting the comment, “Never had racing in Bathurst to my knowledge.” The pub features in many artworks, including a famous landscape by Sir Thomas Baines.
According to the sales pitch, the property includes a manicured lawn, covered stage, swimming pool and play area for children — ideal for functions such as weddings and intimate live music concerts.
There are tanks to store up to 50,000l of rainwater, a large solar geyser and two electric geysers, a 10kVA inverter and a 7kVA backup generator.
“The Pig” was originally built as a “classic British inn”, in the same style as inns still found across the UK, usually at a well-travelled crossroads. “That’s where people used to rest their horses,” Came said. “We were built exactly like that in 1832 — stables at the back and rooms above.”
If the country’s oldest pub doesn’t complete the Christmas shopping list, a Pig and Whistle-associated 380ha game and pineapple farm is also for sale 6km outside Bathurst, where trail rides, picnics and moonlight dinners are on offer.
Came said he had yet to encounter any ghosts on his property but regularly received inquiries about possible disembodied residents. To his surprise, some people were disappointed to hear the property appears to be ghost-free.
“I’m quite relaxed about that — believe in ghosts,” he added.