Donnybrook is a rural village in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, situated in the midst of green hills along the R612 Regional Route, between Ixopo and Bulwer, approximately 80 km south-west of Pietermaritzburg.
The village was named after Donnybrook, a suburb of Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, by Robert Comrie, the owner of the farm on which it was laid out.
Until the mid-1980s, it was the northern terminus of the Umzinto – Donnybrook narrow gauge railway.
Donnybrook falls within the Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Local Municipality, which is part of the Harry Gwala District Municipality.
There is little other than a police station and a petrol station to make a detour into the tiny farm village necessary. However, train fundis might stop here to take in the remains of the Umzinto-Donnybrook narrow gauge railway that used to terminate here.
This part of the country, so close to the Underberg and the Mkhomazi Wilderness area, must have reminded Robert Comrie, who originally owned the farm on which the village now stands, enough of the suburb in Dublin that he christened it Donnybrook.
Just 42 minutes from the foothills of the Underberg, this area is principally farmland. An escape here guarantees stillness, quiet, and green hills that steadily give way to the southern Drakensberg mountains in the near distance.
From here, you have access to the Marutswa Forest Trail and Boardwalk just outside the little town of Bulwer. A series of trails lead into the indigenous forest. There are little lookout jetties, picnic sites, and viewpoints from which you can sight herds of bush pig, dassies, bushbuck, and any number of birds, for the forest is home to both rare and interesting birds like the Cape parrot.
Other attractions include the Impendle Nature Reserve, where you can spot the rare blue swallow; the country villages of Underberg and Himeville; and famous aspects of the Southern Drakensberg, like Sani Pass.
Local day tours to explore the birds of the region and San rock art leave from Underberg, and hikes can be organised into the Drakensberg.
