Single Tree Hill from Nuwara Eliya

The line starts where Unique View Road leaves the A5 Badulla Road on the south side of Nuwara Eliya and follows the asphalt of Unique View Road for 0.9 km, climbing between houses, to where the road ends. A hiking-tagged path then climbs through tea for 0.8 km to the top, which OpenStreetMap names 'Single Tree' and gives as 2,100 m, and the line ends on the track just beyond it. The Central Province Tourism Department's page calls Single Tree Hill the tenth highest peak in Sri Lanka, at 2100 m and rising only 250 m above Nuwara Eliya, easily accessible by the road across the tea estate, with views of the Haggala mountain, the Pidurutalagala range, Lake Gregory and the northern slice of the Horton Plains. The way down is the way up.

It is 3.6 km there and back with 179 m of ascent, from 1,892 m at the Badulla Road to about 2,090 m at the top; allow about an hour and a half, and longer to sit at the top. The grade is Easy: half the line is on a residential road, the path is tagged sac_scale hiking, the easiest grade, and the climb is steady.

Pidurutalagala, the range the Central Province page names among the views, lies on the other side of Nuwara Eliya and is not part of this walk: the Ministry of Defence's page on High Security Zones lists Piduruthalagala and says access to it has been curtailed because it is declared a High Security Zone. Do not try to reach its summit or its access road from here. The path crosses a tea estate: keep to it. The Department of Census and Statistics says considerable heavy rain falls in the hill country from June to August, and the FCDO warns of heavy rain, flooding and landslides across Sri Lanka and of venomous snakes and insects in many parts of the country.

No car park is mapped at the start, which is a roadside point on the A5 south of the town centre. No charge or opening hours for the hill appear on the Central Province Tourism Department's hiking page, which also lists no permit for it.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.