City: Huntersville, NC

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (704) 875-3113

Address: 4431 Neck Rd.

Description: Historic Rural Hill Farm was the home of Major John and Violet Davidson and six generations of the Davidson family before Mecklenburg County bought the 265-acre farm for preservation purposes in 1989. The county leases the former plantation to the Catawba Valley Scottish Society, which provides guided tours, educational programs, walking trails, hay rides by reservation, and a range of special events. Visitors can see a reproduction of the first Davidson home, which dates from the Revolutionary War era, as well as plantation ruins, the family cemetery, a smokehouse, ash house, well house, barn, chicken shed, and granary. Two one-room schoolhouses serve as interpretive centers of early American education.Among the special events held at Rural Hill Farm are the Loch Norman Highland Games in April and the Sheep Dog Trials in November. Every other year, from late August through mid-October, the farm challenges visitors to work their way through the Rural Hill Amazing Maize Maze. Open Mon through Fri by appointment only. Admission is $6 adults, $4 children 5 to 12, free for children 4 and under.