Nuwara Eliya
The highlands the British mistook for home
Nuwara Eliya is a highland town in central Sri Lanka at about 1,870 metres, the centre of the country's tea industry. Settled by the British from the 1820s for its cool climate, it retains colonial-era architecture and is surrounded by the estates that produce high-grown Ceylon tea.
The account
At 1,870 metres the air is genuinely cold, and the British — who found the lowlands intolerable — built the town they wished they were still living in. Mock-Tudor guesthouses. A racecourse. A golf course. Hedges. It is a strange thing to come upon in the tropics and it is why the town is still called Little England, usually with affection and occasionally not.
The tea came after coffee failed. A leaf blight destroyed the island's coffee plantations in the 1870s, and the estates were replanted with tea — an accident that produced the industry now identified with the country more than any other product.
The labour is the part the estates rarely put on the sign. The workforce was brought from South India under indenture in the nineteenth century, and their descendants — the Malaiyaha or Up-Country Tamil community — still pick these hills. They were stripped of citizenship after independence in 1948 and spent decades stateless, an injustice only fully resolved by legislation in 2003. Every cup of high-grown Ceylon rests on that history, and it is worth holding while you look at the view.
Go up to Horton Plains at dawn if the weather is with you. World's End is a sheer drop of some 870 metres at the plateau edge, and it clouds over most mornings by nine or ten. Arriving late means standing at a railing looking into white.
In brief
- Altitude
- approximately 1,870 metres
- Tea replanting
- from the 1870s, after coffee blight
- World's End drop
- approximately 870 metres
- Coolest months
- December to February
- Reach Horton Plains by
- 06:30 — it clouds over by 09:00
- Region
- Nuwara Eliya, Central Province
- Coordinates
- 6.9497, 80.7891
Questions about Nuwara Eliya
Why is Nuwara Eliya called Little England?
- Because the British built it to resemble home. Settled from the 1820s as a hill station escaping the lowland heat, it acquired mock-Tudor buildings, a racecourse, a golf course and English gardens. At 1,870 metres the climate is cool and often misty, which completed the resemblance.
What is the best time to visit Nuwara Eliya?
- March and April are the driest and the busiest — April is the Sinhala and Tamil New Year season, when the town fills with domestic visitors. December to February is cold but clear. Avoid the heaviest rains of the northeast monsoon from October to November if you plan to walk.
How do you get to Horton Plains and World's End?
- Horton Plains is about 30 kilometres from Nuwara Eliya, roughly 90 minutes by road. Leave by 05:00 to reach World's End before the cloud closes in around nine. The circular walk is about nine kilometres and takes three hours.
