Trincomalee, on the north-east coast of Sri Lanka, with its magnificent coast, is becoming increasingly popular with visitors to the country. Blessed with sunny weather throughout the year, with more than a dozen sheltered bays, white sand beaches, a sea that is uniformly calm and placid and warm, and offering the underwater photographer and explorer a variety of visual delights, Trinco, as it is briefly known, has all the natural ingredients to tempt a sea-lover, and may be reached from Colombo by rail, road or air.

Trincomalee's best-known endowment is its harbour - believed to be one of the largest, the safest and the most picturesque natural harbours in the world. The British and the Allied Powers chose it as the chief naval base for the entire South East Asia and Far East Command during World War 11, and Trincomalee remained a "Navy town" for years afterwards.

It had in fact a long military history, interesting in its own way, but for the fact it was complicated as well. It began in 1617 when five Danish ships put into Koddiyar Bay under a commander named Ove Giedde. The Sinhala king of Kandy having a lively appreciation of the Port's value, Giedde's negotiations proved fruitless; and he sailed away, leaving one wreck behind.

The Portuguese, already established in other parts of the island, now cast their eyes Trincomalee towards and in 1624 completed the construction of a fort there. The Dutch chronicler Baldaeus records that the site was chosen because an ancient Hindu shrine stood nearby. Its destruction would be a work of religious zeal and its stones "would be very helpful". So, it proved, were the guns from the Danish wreck, which filled the fort's embrasures. Never was fort so conveniently erected! The King of Kandy sent messages, and then an army, to bid the Portuguese cease and desist; but the former they ignored and the latter they routed.

This fortlet - it had but three bastions - was taken by the Dutch in 1639, and abandoned soon afterwards, only to be re-fortified by them again in 1675, and named Fort Frederick after Frederick the Great. It is part of those walls and gate that still stand, as the next focal point of interest in Trincomalee, besides the harbor.

In 1795, a British fleet lay off Trincomalee, ostensibly come to protect the Dutch against the French, but under secret orders to capture Trincomalee at all events, for its growing strategic importance. The bedevilled Dutch, unsure where loyalty-or expediency-lay, hesitated. But Colonel James Stuart, opening a practicable breach in the walls after a four-day bombardment, clinched the matter. And Trincomalee became - England's first Ceylon possession!

Apart from Fort Frederick, only Fort Ostenberg - not seriously fortified until British times; and then chiefly to guard the Dockyard at its foot - substantially survives to tell of all this contentious history. The monuments of peace are even fewer.

Sacred Hindu Shrines


The great Hindu Shrine sacred to Koneswara and one of the five Isvarams of the Saivite world, which crowned Swami Rock, Fort Frederick's eastern precipice, is replaced by a modern temple. (The Evening puja here, especially on Fridays, is an experience not to be missed; and anyone unshod, uncovered and ordinarily decorous is welcome to attend it.) Of the ancient building razed by the Portuguese - which some traditionalists date back to thousands of centuries B.C. and which the Buddhist heretic king, Mahasena, is recorded to have suppressed in the 3rd century A.D. - nothing is normally to be seen but a stone or two.

What is probably the ancient lingam (phallus) was recently discovered by the undersea explorer Mike Wilson and now stands within the kovil.

Bathing Beaches

But it is when the Southwest Monsoon has already begun to lash Ceylon's more publicized Bathing Beaches that those of Trincomalee come fully into their own. For the best are those on the open northeast coast, facing the Bay of Bengal, where mile after mile of perfect beach invites the devotee; with a choice of hotels from Uppuveli to Nilaveli and beyond.

Just off Nilaveli, lies Pigeon Island, a little rocky islet where the Blue Rock pigeon breeds, and whose waters around are a paradise of colourful fishes. Popular with today's tourists, the island can be reached by boats hired from any of the hotels or from the beach.

Vishnu Temple

In Trincomalee town, beyond the virtues of its situation there is not a great deal to see. But there is a Vishnu Temple, one of the few such Hindu shrines in Ceylon. And Wellington House (in Fort Frederick) is surely of interest; for here it was over Christmas 1799 that the Iron Duke fresh from his victory over Tippu Sultan in South India awaited transport to a new command in Egypt. Stricken ill, he missed his ship; which was lost with all hands in the Gulf of Aden.

He had been saved for Waterloo! Admiralty House with its grassy gardens sweeping down to the Inner Harbour, its vast Banyan Tree, its quaint Pepperpot Cottage for the Flag Lieutenant, also housed famous men in its time; Admirals ranging from Austen (Sir Charles, Jane Austen's `problem' younger brother) to Dunbar-Nasmyth, the VC. submariner of World War l.

Seruwawila Dagaba

Southeast of Trincomalee, across the great Koddiyar Bay, is the celebrated site called Seruwawila with its dagaba built in the 3rd century B.C. by King Kavantissa, father of Duttha Gamini, to enshrine the Frontal Bone Relic of the Buddha. On the way to Seruwawila, at the town of MUTUR, is Knox's Tree.

Somewhere here - but the exact site is disputed - Robert Knox, King Rajasingha II's famous captive, author of the classic Historical Relation of Ceylon and co-inspirer with Alexander Selkirk of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, was taken in 1660. Both places are conveniently reached by road and ferries. Fairly regular launch service is maintained between Trincomalee and Mutur where there is a simple rest house and where cars may be hired.