The Oudtshoorn feather boom: Famed feather palaces of the Klein Karoo
Daily Maverick | 21.05.2026 14:00
By the 1860s, Oudtshoorn had taken over from North Africa as the global hub of ostrich feathers, and the region grew out of poverty and into a period of unimaginable wealth. You see the gorgeous old “feather palaces” all around the Klein Karoo, but specifically concentrated in and about Oudtshoorn. All thanks to the domesticated (but still ornery) ostrich.
