It could be the ideal venue for a movie set – probably for a good old cowboy movie.  The swinging saloon doors are no more but if you keep still for a minute or two, you could probably here the laughter of men and the tinny sound of music from another era.

A softer era where people took the time to enjoy life and each other’s company.  Sadly, that is no more at the now abandoned and very much dilapidated Hearns Hotel in Hattingspruit.

Hattingspruiters who spoke to the Courier recalled going to dances at the hotel in the 1960s.  “It was great fun.” said Madge Hellerle who stays around the corner from the hotel.

“It was a smart hotel in its day – those days are long past now,” she says with sadness in her voice.

The grand fireplace probably kept many a traveller warm on those cold Northern Natal winter nights.

There has been talk of renovating the building and make it a home for local arts and crafts. But the ideas have come to nought.

Further concerns are that it is a hang-out for criminals and vagrants – even though it is around the corner from the Hattingspruit police station.  For now the raucous laughter and dances in the Hearns Hotel will have to remain as a ghostly reminder of days past.