Let's go to Sembuwatta

 This is about a wonderful place with a lake in the middle of a pine forest on one side and a tea plantation on the other. That is Sembuwatta located in the Matale District. It can be described as a place that everyone has heard of and a place that many have gone to. First, let's look at how to get here.

If you are coming from Kandy you can pass Katugastota and reach Elkaduwa via Wattegama town to Sembuwatta. Or if you are coming from the Matale side you can easily reach Elkaduwa via Ukuwela town and visit this Sembuwatta.

During the colonial period the English started cultivating tea in this area. At that time the place where this lake was was used by the whites as their polo stadium. However, those who built a tea factory close to this estate in 1949 have removed the polo stadium and built the Sembuwatta tank there to get the electricity they need. Although it has been 20 years since the roof of the tea factory was built, the Sembuwatta tank still supplies electricity to the estate houses here.

There is a beautiful legend about the origin of the name Sembuwatta. Most people have not heard that story.

One day a gold mine came out of a spring near the aforementioned tea factory. So Kankani, who was attached to the estate, took the gold and fled to India. However, legends say that Kankani's son built a temple where the water source was. Even today when you visit Sembuwatta you can see the ruins of that temple. That is how the name 'Sembuwatta' came to be for this area.

According to a concept of the estate superintendent Radley Disage who was in charge of the estate in the year 2005, the Sembuwatta lake and the surrounding area have been properly maintained and steps have been taken to popularize this place among the tourists by constructing summer cottages and a swimming pool near the lake.