Sri Lanka's edge-of-the-world ridge — tea estates on both sides, two coasts visible
Haputale sits at 1,431 metres on a dramatic ridge in Sri Lanka's central highlands, the town literally straddling the crest with tea estates falling steeply away on both sides. On a clear morning you can see both Sri Lanka's southern coast and the eastern coast simultaneously — 200km of visibility across the island. Lipton's Seat viewpoint, the Dambetenne Tea Factory, and Adisham Benedictine Monastery give it more than enough reason to stop for a night.
Haputale's history is inseparable from the tea industry — the entire hill country landscape was created between 1870 and 1900 when British planters cleared montane forest after coffee blight and planted Ceylon tea. Sir Thomas Lipton purchased his first Ceylon estates here in 1890. The area's Tamil estate workers, descendants of labourers brought from South India by the British, remain the majority population and among Sri Lanka's most marginalised communities.