Richmond Castle as it is called today, was built by the wealthy Mudaliyar, Padikara Mudali Nanayakkara Rajawasala Appuhamilage Don Arthur De Silva Wijesinghe Siriwardena between 1900 and 1910, near the picturesque second biggest river Kalu ganga ( Black River). Sri Lanka was a British colony back then and Siriwardena who studied in Britain was bestowed the position of Mudaliyar by the King, when he returned to the country known as Ceylon back then, after the completion of his studies in the UK.
He built his mansion to resemble a Maha Raja’s castle in India which, was owned by Srirwardena’s schoolmate, Raja Rajeswara Sethupathi, the Raja of Ramnd.
The Richmond Castle has 16 rooms, 99 doors and 34 Windows and it sits in the middle of a 42 acres (17 ha) estate besides the Kalutara-Palatota Road in Kalutara, a coastal town to the south of Colombo the commercial capital of the country.
Wow, this is beautifully captured, thank you for sharing with us! The banquet hall is my absolute favorite and I’m truly inspired to visit. I’m curious to know more about the area, mind telling us more?
Thanks a lot for watching. The wealthy owner had no children, hence nobody to inherit all his wealth. In his will he has entrusted his mansion and his estate to the Public Trustee and now as requested by him the place is a government run orphanage for boys.
Records indicate that two shiploads of teak were imported from Burma for its construction. The entire building is characterized by intricate carvings. The timber remains as fresh as at the time of construction. The architecture shows greater similarity to an English mansion than to an ancient local walauwwa (the local name given to huge homes of the super rich folks that lived during his time),.
The massive garden it is said was filled with flowers and exotic plants then is now filled with trees like coconut, mangosteen, veralu, guava, mango, rambutan and various citrus fruits.
He broke up with his wife with whom he lived for 32 years, some say because he suspected she had an affair while some say because she did not give him any children. During his last years he left his mansion and took up residence in a quiet room at the Queen’s Hotel in Kandy which was a well known expensive hotel frequented by the wealthy during British colonial times, where he breathed his last in 1947…
Kalutara is a town near the Kaluganga estuary the second biggest river on the island. There are beautiful beaches to relax which are less crowded on weekdays than on weekends because of their close proximity to the biggest city Colombo. There is also the Kalutara Bodhiya and the Buddhist temple. Many waterfalls are there within an half hour to 45 minutes drive from the Kalutara town where you can take a cools dip in the river. You can also watch toddy tapping and even sip some raa a local favorite.
Hello @CharithaJB Thanks for sharing such beautiful photographs of this lovely building. 99 doors, that is a lot of doors. We have many Edwardian stately homes in Ireland and Dublin especially has a lot of Georgian buildings, both from when Ireland was under British rule for hundreds of years until the 1920s. At least they left some nice architecture behind many of which were handed back to the public to view stately homes and beautiful grounds. Your, Richmond Castle is a beautiful example of this. Actually there is a Richmond road near me and there used to be a Richmond hospital, some of our streets still retain British names
Yes we too have some buildings renaming from the British colonial era concentrated mostly in the heart of the commercial capital Colombo and in Kandy which is a 3.5 hours drive from Colombo but not in other areas. The reason is these two cities were important for the British because Colombo is build around the harbor where the crops especially Ceylon tea, Rubber, coconuts and spices were shipped to markets in the west. During the British period the country was known as Ceylon which was changed to Sri Lanka after we won our independence on the 4th of February 1948.
Kandy was important because this was and still is the biggest city in the island’s hill country where all the tea was brought here and was shipped by train to Colombo to be exported abroad. Although it is the second biggest city and the distance from Colombo is only 115km it takes more than three long hours to reach because we don’t have a high speed highway connecting the two cities. The one we have is a two lane highway that is full of traffic most of the time except in the early mornings. By express train is the quickest way to reach Kandy in 2.5 hours.
I have seen pictures and videos of your beautiful Emerald island!
Hello @CharithaJB Thankyou for your reply, very interesting and for your comment about emerald Isle. Actually talking to you about Sri Lanka has just reminded me of a friend here in Dublin from Sri Lanka, her name is, Tekla and her husband and son are lovely people and very hard working, her son, Ravin was friends with my son but they moved away from my area and we lost contact, I must give Tekla a phone call and see how she is. Thank you @CharithaJB
I knew there are Sri Lankans living in the UK but didn’t know they lived in Ireland Many students travel to the UK even present day for their higher studies and then stay there, probably they do the same in Ireland too,
Here in Sri Lanka too we have many British, German, Swiss. Italian and French living here, mostly in the deep south of the island where the beaches are a much nicer and less crowded unlike those closer to Colombo. Many own small but expensive boutique hotels and guest houses for tourists. Of them living in the South, a lot are living in Rekawa, because the beach there is awesome! I have a video of that beach on connect
Hi @CharithaJB Yes there is a small community of Sri Lankans in Ireland, my friend Tekla, her husband Ajhid and son Ravin came here when the child was 5 years old for his education, he is 19 years old, funny enough my son met Ravin on the bus today from the city. The Irish like the Sri Lankans
