Arthur's Seat Viewpoint

Arthur's Seat is a lookout on Rajapihilla Mawatha, on the slopes above the south-west side of Kandy Lake in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It gives the classic postcard view of the lake, the Temple of the Tooth, the Royal Palace and the town, and suits anyone with half an hour and a camera.

Mr Arthur, a tea planter, and his stone seat

Local folklore says a British tea planter called Mr Arthur owned a bungalow above the spot and liked to sit on a stone seat under a tree, looking over the town. The lookout sits about 550 m above sea level, just past the Royal Palace Park.

The 2016 concrete deck and the heritage objection

Early in 2016 the Kandy Municipal Council built a concrete viewing deck, 35 m long and 5 m wide, at a cost of Rs 6.474 million funded by the World Bank. A symbolic seat was made from the original rock slab. The city's heritage committee objected that the deck was unsightly and that the old seat had been lost. In 2015 the council counted about 1,500 visitors a day in the November to May peak and 500 a day off-season.

Kandy Lake and its island pavilion from above

The lake you look down on was built by King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe between 1807 and 1812. The island in the middle held a royal pavilion that the British later used as an ammunition store, and the Ulpange, the queens' bathing pavilion on the shore, is now a police post. A shaded path circles the water if you want to walk down afterwards.