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Harberton Ranch: an historical estancia in Tierra del Fuego

Visit Harberton Ranch, a typical estancia in Tierra del Fuego Island

Harberton is the oldest estancia in the Argentine sector of Tierra del Fuego. Its founder, Thomas Bridges, was an orphan found on a bridge somewhere in England and later adopted by an Anglican missionary, the Rev. G.P. Despard. In 1856, at the age of 13, he was taken with his adoptive family to Keppel (Vigía) Island in the Islas Malvinas, where an agricultural mission station was being established. There he learned Yahgan, the language of the Yámana canoe people from TF, who were taken there for training. By his first trip to Tierra del Fuego, in 1863, he was able to speak with the Fuegians and explain what the Mission wanted to do. He founded the Anglican Mission at Ushuaia in 1870, establishing there permanently with his wife, Mary Ann Varder, and their small daughter Mary, in 1871.

In 1884, he received the first Argentine expedition to Tierra del Fuego, which set up the subprefecture at Ushuaia. Two years later, after thirty years with the Keppel and Ushuaia missions, Bridges received Argentine citizenship and a donation of land from the Argentine National Congress under Julio A. Roca in acknowledgment for his work with the natives and with shipwrecked sailors of the Cape Horn area. The estancia he founded, at first called Downeast is located 40 nautical miles (60 km) east of Ushuaia. It was named Harberton after his wife’s birthplace in Devon, England and was the first productive enterprise in Tierra del Fuego (earlier enterprises, such as sealing, whaling and gold-digging, were all exploitive).

Harberton now belongs to the grandchildren of Thomas Bridges’ sons Will and Lucas. Its manager, Thomas D. Goodall, is a fourth-generation great-grandson of the founder, and lives at the estancia in the original 1887 house with his family, members of the fifth and sixth generations.

Harberton has been open to the public since the early 1980s. The best way of getting to know the farm is by taking the hour-long guided homestead tour.

The tour includes excellent views of the bay, mountains, and islands to the southeast, then a stroll through The Park, TF’s oldest Nature Reserve (fenced in the 1890s) to view the five kinds of native trees, other local flora, replicas of two types of the native wigwam and learn family history. Coming down the hill, you enter some of the old buildings: the shearing shed, carpenter shop and boathouse, walking step by step through history to end in the family garden with its 1894 terraces.

After some free time in Harberton Ranch, we will return by land, along J Route plenty of great views of mountains, rivers, valleys and peat bogs, beaver dams, and flag trees. We will arrive in Ushuaia in the afternoon.

Harberton Ranch: How to arrive?

To access Estancia Harberto from Ushuaia, take National Route 3 north to the detour with Route J. Although it is a gravel road, the state is very good. It is one of the most beautiful roads that we have in this remote area, bordering the sea, between forests, with some very sharp curves, small elevations and unique landscapes. The vision alternates between sea and mountains. At times you can see both. It looks more like a country road than a complementary route.

Finally you reach the gate of the ranch, where after paying the entrance, you access the parking lot.

Harberton Ranch: location map

See our map to see how to arrive to Harberton Ranch from Ushuaia

Harberton Ranch: What to see and what to do?

Travel back in time during the Harberton Town National Historic Landmark guided hike. On this tour you will learn about the history of the Bridges family and their relationship with the natives, you will visit the Park (the first natural reserve in Tierra del Fuego), the family cemetery, replicas of Yámana huts, the old shearing shed, the carpentry, the house of the oldest boat built in Tierra del Fuego and the beautiful garden of the main house.

Complete skeleton of a Leopard Seal, with the painting of the living animal behind it. Skull of the Crabeater Seal. Acatushun Museum Garden, with 4 whale skeletons lying on the grass. Brick oven where the found bones are boiled to clean them of remains of skin and meat. Two biology interns from the Acatushun Museum finishing the process of cleaning the bones by hand.

Acatushun Museum

Dive into the depths of the sea during the guided tour of the Acatushun Museum of Marine Birds and Mammals, one of the most important collections in the world with more than 2,800 mammal specimens and 2,300 bird specimens.

Here you will find life-size representations of underwater animals and part of the extensive collection of skeletons collected by Dr. Natalie Goodall and her interns on the Fuegian coast. If you wish and have time, you can visit the Laboratory and the House of Bones, where they work with the specimens.

Table with old objects from the Bridges family, such as a manual drill, a kerosene lamp, old drawers in which they brought their possessions from England.

Historic museum

This year we decided to move the Manacatush Tea House to the top of the hill and integrate it into the Acawaia restaurant to make room for a new Historical Museum in the west wing of the Original Main House.

Excursion in the Beagle Channel: Harberton Ranch and the penguin colony of Martillo Island

It´s combined activity, starting with boat navigation and return from Harberton Ranch is in a vehicle by land. We sail from the local tourist dock and go along the wide Ushuaia Bay until we reach the Beagle Channel through Paso Chico. You have a chance to take great photos of Ushuaia city and Olivia Mount from the channel now. We continue sailing around the Isla de los Pájaros where we will spot different species of birds such as Skuas, the black-browed albatross, steam ducks, cauquenes, kelp seagulls, and gray seagulls. We continue to sail around the Isla de Los Lobos, where we can see a colony of sea lions and fur sea lions. Both islands belong to the Bridges archipelago with a rich history too.

After that, we continue to the famous Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse see some birds, and learn about the history of the sinking of the SS Cervantes in 1930. This is another typical photography of the end of the world, with the red and white lighthouse. We will then continue sailing to the east, enjoying the unique sceneries of the channel and the surrounding mountains. These coats are plenty of histories about aborigins in the area, that lived there until the arrival of the Europeans. There we will see Puerto Almanza on the Argentinean coast, and Puerto Williams Navy Base on the Chilean coast. The Chilean town could be in the future the southernmost city in the world, but it´s just a small village now. Once in Martillo Island, we will spot a colony of Magellan Penguins and some Papua penguins.

Penguins in the Beagle Channel: Martillo Island Penguin Rookery

The island is a colony of 3000 pairs of Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus), 16 pairs of gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua)- the only rookery in continental Argentina- and 155 pairs of rock cormorants (Phalacrocorax magellanicus) nest on the cliffs to the south. This penguin colony, the only one reachable from Ushuaia, is growing gradually each year. Yécapasela, the original name of the island, is a great habitat for these penguins, as there are very few predators in the area, abundant food and the ground and vegetation provide adequate shelter for nests and chicks.

Penguins start to arrive on the island early in October to start their annual breeding season, raise their chicks and molt their feathers. Around late March and the first days of April, penguins leave to begin their usual migration northward, and will feed at sea for more than 6 months, until the winter is over and spring calls them again to breed on land.

Book the Beagle Channel Navigation to see Penguins and visit Harberton Ranch

Click on the image below and book wonderful boat navigation from Ushuaia to enjoy the colony of penguins in Martillo Island and a typical ranch in Estancia Harberton!