Lipton's statue
Life-size, seated on a bench at the edge.
Rovin Shanila — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bajil1030 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Linganathan Anushan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Adbar — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Linganathan Anushan — CC BY-SA 4.0
Lipton's Seat is a lookout at more than 1,900 metres on the Poonagala hills, at the top of the Dambatenne tea estate above Haputale in Sri Lanka's hill country. It is named after Sir Thomas Lipton, the Glasgow grocer turned tea magnate, who is said to have sat here to survey his plantations. Lipton acquired Dambatenne in 1890, when he was buying Ceylon tea gardens to supply his shops directly, and built the estate's factory, by most accounts that same year. It still works, and the estate calls it Sri Lanka's longest tea factory. A life-size statue of Lipton seated on a bench was unveiled here in 2015. On a clear morning, tea terraces fall away below and the view runs over ridge after ridge to the southern lowlands, with the Udawalawe Reservoir and Handapanagala Lake shining in the distance. Parts of five, or even seven, of the island's nine provinces are often said to be in sight. A small café at the top serves tea and snacks. The seat is about 15 km by road from Haputale: 9.5 km to the Dambatenne Tea Factory, which runs guided tours, then about 6 km up a narrow estate road, some 30 minutes by tuk-tuk in all. Ella is about 40 km by road via Bandarawela and Haputale, 60 to 90 minutes each way. Come at dawn, before the mid-morning mist, with a warm layer. Ravana Falls and Ella Rock lie 8 to 9 km north-north-east as the crow flies; Diyaluma Falls, 6 km south, is some 45 km by road.
Life-size, seated on a bench at the edge.
To the Udawalawe Reservoir on clear mornings.
Built by Lipton, in 1890 by most accounts; guided tours.
Top of the Dambatenne tea estate, above the Dambatenne Tea Factory, Haputale, Badulla District
A Glasgow-born grocer (1848–1931) who built a chain of hundreds of shops and the Lipton tea brand, selling tea cheaply by bypassing the wholesale trade and, from 1890, supplying it from his own gardens in Ceylon. A keen yachtsman, he also challenged five times for the America's Cup between 1899 and 1930.
Yes: local buses reach Dambatenne, though not early enough for sunrise, and from the tea factory the estate road climbs about 6 km, around two and a half hours on foot, per visitor guides. Many ride up by tuk-tuk for sunrise and walk down through the tea fields instead; wear proper shoes, and expect leeches on the field paths in wet weather.