Ixopo is most famously described by Alan Paton in the opening lines of Cry, The Beloved Country: "There is a lovely road which runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it."

The town houses two schools including a high school with a large proportion of boarding pupils who live in surrounding villages (such as Bulwer, Underburg, Creighton) which are too small too to justify the erection and staffing of a high school.

In the 1990s leading up to and after South Africa became democratic, Ixopo was the centre of a number of armed clashes between two political parties, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party.

Ixopo is also well known for The Buddhist Retreat Centre, one of the major Buddhist centres in the country.