Giraffe Manor is a small hotel in the Lang'ata suburb of Nairobi, Kenya which, together with its associated Giraffe Centre, serves as a home to a number of endangered Rothschild giraffes, and operates a breeding programme to reintroduce breeding pairs back into the wild to secure the future of the subspecies.HistoryThe Manor was modelled on a Scottish hunting lodge, and was constructed in 1932 by Sir David Duncan, a member of the Mackintosh family, of Mackintosh's Toffee fame, on 150acre of land running down to the Mbagathi River, the southern boundary of the city of Nairobi. In the 1960s the Manor was purchased by a local investor who leased it to a succession of people, including the late Dennis Lakin, before it fell into disrepair, unoccupied.In 1974, the Manor was purchased by Betty Leslie-Melville and her husband Jock, along with 15acre of the original 150acre. Since then a further 60acre of those have also been purchased, which along with an additional 40acre gifted by Peter Beard which used to form part of his "Hog Ranch" has brought the total acreage of the Manor up to 115acre.Life as a giraffe sanctuaryShortly after purchasing the Manor, the Leslie-Melvilles learned that the only remaining Rothschild giraffes in Kenya were in danger due to a compulsory purchase by the Kenyan government of an 18000acre privately owned ranch at Soy, near Eldoret, which was their sole habitat. Inevitably the purchase would result in the land being sub-divided into smallholdings, and the giraffes being slaughtered.