Adisham Monastery of Saint Benedict

Wrapped in the tranquility of the Tangamalai bird sanctuary near Haputale, Adisham Hall is a former colonial country house built in 1931, which was coverted into a Benedictine monastery in 1961. The British planter and trader Sir Thomas Villiers named his country mansion after his birthplace, which was the village of Adisham in Kent, England. For his dream home in the typical English Tudor style, he  purchased 2.5 hectared of land in the lonesome and peaceful Golden Hills („Tangamalai“) With a breathtakingly panoramic view of the Uva bassin in the southeastern part of Sri Lanka’s highlands. Sir Thomas Villiers spared no expense to embellish his country home with antiquities and luxurious furniture. Adisham Hall soon became a meeting place of the colonial upper class Ceylon.

The English garden and parts of the country house are open to the public on Sundays and Poya Days. The interior of the sitting room and library are well preserved. The colonial stairwell and the rooms inhabited by the monks can not be visited. A chip of a bone of St. Sylvester is enshrined in the altar of the chapel of the St. Benedict Monastery Adisham.

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