The Outspan was developed in the 1920s by Eric Sherbrooke Walker, a former secretary to Baden-Powell, as a colonial-era staging post on the way up to the Aberdares. The main building still has its old wide verandah, log fires, and view across the lawn to Mount Kenya — and the gardens contain Paxtu, the small cottage where Baden-Powell himself lived from 1938 until his death in 1941.
Paxtu is preserved as a one-room museum with the founder's writing desk, a few photographs, and Scout memorabilia donated over the years. Even non-guests can visit the cottage for a small fee and stop for coffee or lunch on the hotel verandah. The grounds are also a good place to glimpse colobus monkeys in the surrounding trees.