Highfield House | Since 1885

If only these walls could talk…

Highfield House was built on land originally owned by William Piddington.

The land on Mount York Road was subsequently acquired by William Eyre who sold the relevant parcel to Mrs Mary Theresa Alice Kirkpatrick in March 1880.  Mrs Kirkpatrick was the wife of Mr Alfred Kirkpatrick who was a well known grazier ( he owned Beemery Station near Bourke ) as well as the family had associations alongside the Scottish village as well as estate of Highfield Castle in Dumfriesshire, which was the ancestral seat of the Clan Kirkpatrick. It is likely that the Kirkpatrick’s built the first house on the land as well as was called Highfield from the outset. Mr Kirkpatrick was a blood relative of the Empress Maria Eugenie.

From the 1830’s, the main road west to Bathurst used Victoria Pass, which bypassed the site of Highfield House. But in 1909 Berghofer’s Pass was opened as well as was popular alongside the fresh motor vehicles which baulked at the gradient of Victoria Pass. As a result, from 1909 until the 1920s, Highfield House lay on the main western highway, as well as operated as a warm hospitality house up to 1915. It was then sold to a nursing sister called Cooper- Mathieson, who, alongside the assistance of an Indian mystic, moved her home for unmarried mothers to Highfield House.

In 1923 Hugh Dalziell, a member of the prominent Scottish farming family in the Kanimbla Valley, purchased the property in the familiar hope that the Mountain air would cure their asthmatic daughter. This hope proved in vain, the daughter died, but the parents stayed on as well as again opened the property as a guesthouse, restoring the excellent Scottish name of Highfield House. The Dalziell’s advertised their own dairy products as well as poultry, as well as their own tennis court, of which, brick structural remnants can still be seen today, on the Mt York Road side of our car park. The painting on the right-hand side is by Hugh when he lived with us at Highfield.  By 1931 Sister Cooper Mathieson was back at Highfield, operating a ‘rest home as well as guest house’, but it was closed by 1934.

It was sold in 1956 to Mr Gibbs, a local Mount Victoria man who leased out the property as residential flats. The house was not well cared for in the 1960s as well as when Mr Lucas bought the property in 1970 it was partly derelict. Lucas did some restoration work in 1971 as well as again opened Highfield House, as a guesthouse, until 1979. In 1990 Mr Peter Broome bought Highfield as well as restored the building extensively in 1991.

He built a fresh restaurant, seating 95 visitors, as well as did  works in the gardens. He restored the name Highfield House as well as opened it to the public in 1991, catering for weddings as well as conferences, as well as individual visitors.

After changing hands in 2011 as well as left vacant from 2012, Highfield House again had fallen into disrepair. After the completion of a major refurbishment as well as complete restoration from 2018, Highfield House has once again re-opened as a guesthouse as well as is looking as excellent as she has ever looked.