The Lake
Tissa Wewa is a working tank built more than two thousand years ago — and the reason OluVilla exists where it does.
The setting
Tissa Wewa was cut by King Devanampiya Tissa in the third century BC to water the rice plains of the deep south. Twenty-two centuries later it still does exactly that — which is why the water is alive with fish, the banks with birds, and the far shore with nothing but palmyra and sky.
The hours
The water lies mirror-flat until about eight in the morning, when the wind picks up and the herons move off. It settles again around five, and for the following hour the whole surface turns copper. Those are the two hours we plan the day around; everything in between is for shade, books and long lunches.
The seasons
December to April is the dry season: still mornings, warm nights, the clearest light of the year. May to September is greener and quieter, with short dramatic showers in the late afternoon and the lowest rates of the year. Water levels are highest just after the north-east monsoon, when the jetty sits almost level with the surface.
No transfers, no timetables — everything below starts at the end of the garden.
Racked at the jetty, complimentary, best before eight.
Line fishing with a village boatman; catch goes to the kitchen.
A slow hour on the water with arrack sours and a cool box.
Guests only, gated, and yours at any hour of the night.
Six of our ten rooms open directly onto the water. They are the first to go in every season.