THE ALAGALLA MOUNTAINS

The Alagalla Mountains, twenty miles from The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel and to the west of Kandy, are an especially trekkers’ paradise, offering visitors a range of hard-core and easy treks; the easiest is a faint path that begins at Pilimathalawa and ends at Pottapitiya. It's more off-road adventures, including climbing, rock scrambling, and navigating through forests.

It is part of a necklace of high mountains: the Alagalla Mountains, Bible Rock, Uthuwankanda, Devanagala, Ambuluwawa, the Knuckles, and Hanthana. Surrounded by dense jungle ideal for guerrilla warfare, the Kandyan kingdom’s natural defences helped it withstand repeated invasions.

Its wide range of dry evergreen, montane, and sub-montane forests is home to many species of fauna and flora, including wild boar, monkeys, squirrels, anteaters, porcupine, monitor lizard, tortoise – but it is especially noted for its 50 recoded bird species, which include Sri Lankan junglefowls, Layard’s parakeets, and yellow-fronted barbets.

A little over 15 miles from Alagalla is Bible Rock itself, a stunning example of a Table Mountain. Over 5,500 feet high, its curious open-book shape inspired early Victorian missionaries to give it its canonical name. However, 300 years earlier, it served as a lookout post for the Kandyan kings, eager to spot the latest colonial invasions, especially those of the Portuguese. A classic series of bonfires, running from mountain to mountain, starting here and ending near Kandy, served as a trusted warning signal, just as the famous Armada Fire Beacons in England in 1588. Steep though the climb is, it doesn’t take long to get to the top – and one of the best views in the country.