Parow
During a massive storm in 1865, one of the 19 ships which were stranded was the SCHOONER KIHRWIEDER, under command of Captain Johann Heinrich Ferdinand PAROW. After being stranded in the Cape of Good Hope, he decided to stay on. He received assistance from a certain Timmermann family. This led to him falling in love with a daughter Johanna Wilhelmina, who later became his wife.
Soon he realised the potential of the area at the foot of the Tygerberg as a cattle grazing area. Obtaining land, he settled here and successfully farmed and traded in cattle. This is the land which later formed the backbone of present day Parow.
Ten years after his wife passed on, Cpt. Parow died on 10 January 1910. The couple never had children.
PAROW was established in 1886, but only received village status in 1902. Municipal status was granted in 1939.
Tygerberg
The well known hill north from CAPE DAWN GUEST HOUSE was apparently named either after vegetation on the slopes, looking at it from a distance it seemed to have a spotted effect or after the old Dutch term for a leopard,…a tijger.
Covering more than 300 ha, this Nature Reserve conserves a small but endangered Renosterveld vegetion. With several hiking trails, the Keith Kirsten Enviromental centre and 360 degree views over the entire city, mountains, ocean and winelands.
Theal Street
Named after George McCall Theal. (11 April 1837 – 17 April 1919), one of the most influential South African Historians, Archivists and Genealogists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
De Grendel
The original Graff already arrived in SA from Germany in 1761 as a soldier in the VOC (Dutch East Indian Company). Followed later by Johannes Jacobus Graff arrived in 1775 as a soldier, carpenter, painter who rose to fame by completing the impressive pulpit in the Groote Kerk in Cape Town. His great grandson Sir David Graaff (Graff) bought De Grendel in 1890 after it was awarded to Booy Booysen in the early Cape and later registered by a Meiboom in 1720. Sir David started a horse stable with Arabian horses. Later Frieslander cows were brought in. The farm was run as a true gentleman’s estate. His son Sir De Villiers Graaff, the second Baronet, who became the longest serving member of the Opposition in the Apartheid Government, continued to farm on De Grendel. He also introduced Merino sheep to the estate. His Son Sir David Graaff (third Baronet) continued the family legacy, but started wine production, with the farm only 7 km from the ocean with an altitude of 250-300m (Vineyards were planted here previously by a certain Joseph Heyns, but the vineyards were destroyed by the phylloxera plague which hit the Cape in the late 19th centuary. The Graaff legacy, is now maintained by De Villiers (4th Baronet) after the death of his father in 2015. There is a tasting room and restaurant on site.
Durbanville Hills Wine route
This wine route starts 5km from CAPE DAWN GUEST HOUSE and include a selection of world class wine farms, olive farms, restaurants and wine tasting activities : De Grendel Wine Estate ; Durbanville Hills Wine Estate; Klein Roosboom; Hillcrest; Nitida; Bloemendal; Altydgedacht Wine Estate; Meerendal; Diemersdal Wine Estate & D`Aria Vineyard