Beaches & Coast
Trincomalee
Eastern Province
One of the finest natural harbours in the world, with Koneswaram standing on the cliff a hundred metres above the sea.
- How long
- 2 days is usually enough
- Best months
- April, May, June, July, August, September
Trincomalee has been a harbour for two thousand years, fought over by the Portuguese, Dutch, French and British in turn, and it is still one of the finest natural anchorages anywhere.
Koneswaram stands on Swami Rock, a hundred metres above the sea inside the walls of Fort Frederick. It is the fourth of the Pancha Ishwaram and the old texts call it Dakshina Kailasam, the Kailash of the south. Evening puja, with the sea below and the light going, is the reason to arrive in the afternoon rather than the morning.
The beaches run north from the town at Uppuveli and Nilaveli, and the eastern season is the opposite of the south’s: the coast here is at its best from April to September, when the monsoon has closed the beaches at Galle.