Orchard House Location & History                

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GALLE - colourful chaos 120 kilometers south of Colombo

Upon arrival in Colombo, guests can be met and driven the leisurely and scenic 120 km to Orchard House - to begin enjoying serene accommodation within the walls of the 16th century Galle Fort with all the tropical mystique and colour that has long inspired Sri Linka to be known as the Jewel of the Indian Ocean.

The town of Galle is nearly at the southern point of Sri Lanka. Serendipitously, the Portuguese landed in 1505 and settled to protect the spice trade. The Fort, now approximately 90 acres of walled village, was started in the mid 1500s with the massively thick wall being built to separate the mainland from the rocky promontory which would later become known as the Fort. It was completed about 100 years later when the walls enclosing the village were finished.

The massive stone walls rising from the blue waters of the Indian Ocean are retaining walls for the ramparts - now grassed areas where the locals play cricket, stroll arm in arm and watch the sun setting. There are two entrances to the Fort from the town of Galle. Both cleave the rock walls and would have had solid wooden doors in earlier times. Galle is a colourful and chaotic town but retreat to the Fort is bliss.

As well as the Naval Base the Fort contains the Supreme Court of the Southern Province with legal offices and other old Government buildings, mosques, temples and an early Dutch Protestant Church.

There are several antique shops, a museum of interesting antiques and many shops selling the gem stones for which Sri Lanka has significant fame.

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