Our Road To Nowhere
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A beautifully fascinating slice of history, architecture, culture, and wildlife, all in one spot, with stunning panoramic views over the near by beaches of Back Bay and the Bay of Bengal. Or at least it could be a beautifully fascinating site of archaeological interest!
The fort wall and entrance way to the southwest of the site are impressively imposing and generally well preserved. Other than that, there is not much else in terms of historic buildings or ruins to explore, as most of the other buildings are election offices, police offices, and/or army buildings, which are generally run down, heavily fenced off, and not open to the public. There are no other historic Fort walls or ramparts to explore around the site, and there is no public access to the top of the only Fort wall or inside the entrance tower – only through it. There are however some historic ammunition bunkers, bastion ruins and a rock bunker to explore. But, there are no tourist information signs anywhere so you often have no idea what you are looking at or the history behind it. The rock bunker does offer fantastic views though!
Whilst exploring the Fort, we saw Grey langur monkeys, eagles, Small palm squirrels, Sri Lankan axis deer, dogs, and a variety of birds. There are also several magnificent mature trees, such as the massive-girthed Arjuns’ (Marutu in Tamil or Kumbuk in Sinhala) and the impressive but parasitic Banyan, aka, Strangler figs. Unfortunately though, there is a lot of waste/litter spread everywhere, which gets a lot worse as you venture up through the stalls on route the headland.
There is ample parking inside or outside the Fort for tuktuks – as they can generally park anywhere – but parking outside the Fort allows the chance to walk up through the arch entrance and up the drive past the military buildings. Tickets are accessible once inside the Fort. A ticket costs 1,788.00 Rs (£4.79) per person, which is a lot when locals pay almost 100% less than tourists and there is no clear and obvious evidence of any maintenance or general management. What actually does the admission fee go towards? Whilst £9.58 is not usually a lot of money spent for two people here in the UK, 3,576.00 Rs is a lot of money when you are trying to short-term live in Sri Lanka where food, fuel, and accommodation also needs to be budgeted for. It is not relative or even reasonable in the slightest. As someone else wrote in an older review, “walking wallets”.
One thing to note if staying in the Trinco area and you’re trying your bit at speaking the local dialect – which in Trinco is Tamil – is the Fort is run by the Sri Lankan military – who are Sinhala, so will only speak and/or respond in Sinhalese! Don’t make the same mistake we did!!
Overall, there is a very confused feel about this site, as in, is it trying to be an archaeological museum or a military base with some public access? The tourist admission fee is too expensive and well out of touch for what is being offered, there is not a great deal to actually look at or to explore around in terms of historic ruins, the tourist information signage is non-existent, both to and around the site, and there is a general lack of care and basic maintenance – like litter picking. This is not a privileged westerner’s whine, but a view of a traveller that would appreciate slightly better value for money. This said, we still found the site interesting to walk around and explore, and we genuinely had a great time.
We would still recommend Fort Frederick as a site to visit when in Trinco, even if it is just for the views of the bays on a sunny day – you just have to look past the litter in places. Fort Frederick is also worth visiting if you want to go and explore the Thirukoneswaram Kovil at the headland! See our review for that site too.
Fort Frederick visited 05-01-2015
ORTN - aka B&A
