The Grand Hotel is an icon of luxurious accommodation the highest Sri Lankan city of Nuwara Eliya and has a heritage exceeding a 100 years. The former residence of Sir Edward Barnes, Governor of Sri Lanka from 1830 to 1850, the Grand Hotel is an excellent example of a mansion from the Elizabethan era. It retains the stateliness and grandeur of a Colonial Mansion and rightfully claims its place as one of the best hill country hotels in Asia.

The fifth Governor of Ceylon (1776-1838), Sir Edward Barnes, spent £8,000 on a house he called “Barnes Hall” to use as a vacation residence in 1828. Sir Robert Wilmot-Horton, who succeeded Barnes in 1831, rented the property after Barnes’ departure from Ceylon. Planter and member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon Reginald Beauchamp Downall (1843-1888) purchased the property and opened it as a hotel and guesthouse. On April 12, 1892, it was purchased by the Nuwara Eliya Hotels Company Limited. For the low, low price of Rs. 35,000/-, William Milsom parted with his “property……known as Barnes Hall on which is built the Grand Hotel” to the Company.

The combined land area of these three estates was 27 acres. The 1890s saw the addition of a second story. The Governors Wing, located up north, was built. In 1904, a corridor was built to connect the second floor of the northern wing to the third floor of the main structure. A new wing, the Golf Wing, was built towards the south. In the 1930s, a phony Tudor-style third level was constructed. The most popular eatery is Barnes Hall, named for a former governor.

The Italian Sovereign’s brother, the Duc d’Abruzzi, as well as King Edward VI’s nephew, the Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Reuss XXXII, the Maharaja of Kapurthala, Jagatjit Singh, and Sir Thomas Lipton, have all dined and stayed at the Grand. Lord Mountbatten was another guest of The Grand.

The Present Grand Hotel features 154 luxuriously furnished rooms, three Presidential Suites, and three Junior Suites, ten carefully crafted food and beverage options, a mindfulness studio with a heated pool, spa, fitness center, and sauna, and a selection of outdoor and indoor recreational opportunities.

A key event in the hotel’s history occurred in 1954, when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II stayed there for Easter and sipped Ceylon Tea in grand style.

The Grand Hotel in Sri Lanka was featured on National Geographic in 2012 because it is a Heritage Property recognized by the country’s National Archaeology Department.