Spending a day in a beautiful green garden surrounded by cold mist is a great experience for anyone. Adisham Bungalow can be called the best place to experience this for any tourist coming to Sri Lanka. It can be identified by a former name called ‘Adisham Hall’ and an alternative name called ‘St. Benedict’s Monastery. We hope that the information we provide in this article will be important to all of you who are looking forward to seeing Adisham Bungalow and spending a vacation.

Location and creation

This bungalow is located in Haputale, Badulla district. And also, it is 5000 feet above sea level. The construction of Adisham Bunglow was started in 1927. The entire construction of Adisham Bunglow was completed in 1931. This architectural bungalow was contributed by Sir Thomes Lister Villiers, who was a British aristocrat, planter, and governor of that time who strived for equality in education and the cessation of child employment.

The mansion was designed by Webster and Booth in accordance with Tudor and Jacabian architectural styles. The monastery occupies an area of 12 acres of land and the bungalow consists of forty rooms. The house is built with strong granite walls made of locally quarried stone, long, narrow turret windows, and chimneys. The roof was covered with flat Burmese teak shingles, and doors, windows, panels, stairs, and floors were all made of Burmese teak. The carpets needed for the Adisham bungalow were imported from Persia. Some of the chairs here are made of camel skin. It was completed with an advanced system of heating the rooms by passing the wind blowing through the wind windows in the roof through special pipe systems and sending them into the furnace. The room where the boiler is located is another special condition in the Adisham bungalow.

Ownership

After Sir Thomas Villiers, this was purchased by Don Charles Wijewardhana and his daughter Rukmini Wijewardhana, owners of Sedawatte Estates, in 1950. But after the daughter Rukmini sold it to an Italian Benedictan monk, However,the Italian monk removed silver cutlery and a few items of furniture in order to recover his investment and also make a profit. After two years, the house and property were donated to the Ampitiya Benedictine Monastery in 1963. Currently, it is maintained as a Roman Catholic Benedictine Monastery. The priests make various products from the fruits obtained from the garden of the bungalow and release them in the market.

Natural surroundings and tourist attractions

Beautiful oil and watercolor paintings by Thomas Lister’s wife,who was a talented artist,add to the artistry of the bungalow. Another painting that is special among the paintings here is the one with the portrait of Sir Thomas Lister, drawn by an English painter named David Painter. As with Leonard da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, this painting is painted so that we turn in the direction, and what is even more interesting is that not only the eyes but the whole person are turned in the direction.

Adisham Bunglow can be named as both a colonial heritage in the country and a masterpiece of English architecture set up in the mountains. The stone mansion and the monastery play key roles as eye-catching creations. When we consider the natural beauty of the awesome garden, it can be seen as an acre-wide orchard of fruits and plants with a beautiful hillside view across Hindu kovils, tea estates, and eucalyptus forests. Visitors can feel the scenic beauty around the monastery garden with its lovely flower beds. Beautifully blooming orchids and roses enhance their attractiveness. The upper part of the bungalow is a forest and a bird sanctuary. The cold mist and the small, spectacular mountains full of tea plantations add to the beauty of the environment. And the other most unique thing is the view point of Sir Thomas in the Adisham bungalow. If you go there, the best time to go is between 5.30 and 6 a.m., when the sun rises.

As a visitor, what can I do?

Anyone who visits Adisham bungalow can enjoy nature, spending the vacation, sightseeing, and photography. It is open to those who are willing to visit every Saturday, Sunday, Poya Day, and all days of school vacation from 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. You have to pay Rs. 100 for adults and Rs. 50 for children at the entrance. For those who prefer to stay here and have a holiday, concessionary packages with food have also been introduced. In addition to this bungalow, you can also get a variety of farm produce here. Adisham Monastery is an attraction not to be missed.