A mere two hours from Colombo Airport, Rosyth Estate House is the perfect first stop on a Sri Lanka tour. A boutique hotel of just 10 rooms and suites, Rosyth introduces guests to Sri Lanka: fine Sri Lankan cuisine, tea-tasting, relaxing spa treatments, plantation exploration and yoga.

Neil and Farzana Dobbs, Rosyth’s owners, will arrange for a driver to meet you at Colombo Airport to whisk you away from the frenzy of Sri Lanka’s capital city. In fact, Travel Gallery will happily put together a tour of an island with your very own private car and driver.

A unique welcome

A foot massage and reviving chilled cinnamon and ginger tea welcome guests to Rosyth Estate House. Somewhere amongst this deconstruction of the traditional check-in there is a little painless signing. Has check-in, done here in an open-air lanai, ever been so relaxed?

A mere 20 minutes away from the opportunity to bath and feed elephants at Pinnawala, and ninety minutes from Kandy’s Temple of the Sacred Tooth, Rosyth is well-placed for a driving tour of Sri Lanka. An island that drops into the ocean like a teardrop falling from India’s south coast.

Luxurious accommodation

Rosyth has bedrooms within the original 1926 bungalow, convenient for the lounge and library. A path leads past clove trees, wrapped with pepper creeper, and appropriately past tea trees up to the Plantation Suites. Dark jack wood frames glass doors that lead out onto a terrace of exterior deep bath and sun-loungers. An irresistible view takes in a dramatic plunging valley of mahogany, palm and yet more tea trees. A valet stand, to keep jackets in shape, with tiny drawers for cufflinks and tie, is a reminder of colonial days. An era when tea planters dressed immaculately, despite steaming temperatures and biblical monsoon deluges.

Reminding guests of the bungalow’s history, a valet stand, to keep jackets in shape, with tiny drawers for cufflinks and tie, recalls colonial days. An era when tea planters dressed immaculately despite steaming temperatures and monsoon biblical deluges.

A climb of 40 steps leads to the uber-luxurious Rock Villa. Consisting of the Rock master suite and the Banyon suite, these suites give the best views on the estate.

Tea tasting like a pro

Rosyth introduces guests to experiences that define Sri Lanka. Plucking tea leaves, on a hillside with sari-wrapped women, guests are both part of the past and future. Traditionally, two leaves and a bud had been picked. Nipping just one leaf and a bud, Rosyth’s ladies are creating a hand-rolled artisan tea in their recently built social enterprise factory.

Rosyth’s tea factory manager guides guests through a tea-tasting. Sniffing, slurping and sloshing, they learn how to taste tea as if it were a premier cru wine. Assessing colour. Sniffing for a fresh aroma. Looking for full rather than fractured leaves. Seeking the pink rim that’s visible on only the finest Dom Perignon of teas. Tasting for teas utterly free of bitterness.

The Dobbs aim to create the ultimate artisan tea. “More Knightsbridge afternoon tea than builder’s with two sugars”, says Neil Dobbs. Until five years ago, he didn’t drink tea, then when his wife inherited a tea plantation, he thought the time had come for him to acquire a taste.

Walking the plantation

A tour of the plantation is an essential part of the Rosyth experience. Naturalist Hetti, who seems to know where every gecko is hiding, leads a walk that passes waterlilies, before  stopping for guests to try their hand at rubber tapping.

That flowing rubber will probably contribute to a surgical glove. Then Hetti cracks open a golden root of ginger. It’s zingy fresh aroma very different to the shrivelled roots sold in Europe. We pass Rosyth’s organic kitchen garden. Protected from birds with netting, protected from monkeys by electric fences.

Learn Sri Lankan cooking

Ingredients for Rosyth’s cookery course largely come from that garden. Ask Sri Lankans what they had for breakfast, lunch or dinner and the answer is always “curry and rice”. But that is an oversimplification. Curry is a catch-all word for beef, carrots, chicken, eggs, fish, mango, pork and pumpkin all immersed in a plethora of spices. Sri Lankan cuisine is taken very seriously at Rosyth.

Countless small bowls of spices await: black pepper, cardamom, chilli, cumin, dried gamboge, ginger, fennel, fenugreek, nutmeg and pandan. In Sri Lanka there are a thousand variations on the theme of curry. And there’s an audience for the cookery course too. Monkeys watch enviously from the trees, hoping that the kitchen will be left unattended …

The completed curry is served in the restaurant, a glass pavilion built onto the original bungalow, that overlooks the pool. Of course curry is an under statement. As well as the chicken curry, rice and naan bread, there is a spicy deep fried aubergine and a dahl.

The daily routine

Days at Rosyth start with (optional) yoga, sometimes with Farzana and Neil Dobbs joining in. It’s a wellness taster for trips to the spa later in the day. After yoga it’s time for breakfast. Hoppers are always available. Eggs fried in a crisp rice flour basket. Though in true colonial style, planters always sought little luxuries to remind them of home, so there are English breakfast options too. Even toast.

Relaxation

Rosyth Estate House is a blissful haven for travellers. Many guests return at the end of their Sri Lanka tour for a few days of relaxation, by the pool, at the spa, before reluctantly heading for the airport.

For them, Rosyth is a serene retreat from the insanity of Sri Lanka’s pock-marked roads populated with bicycles, cars, cows, dogs, goats and even elephants. A place where, for a few idyllic days, Sri Lanka comes to you.