Nuwara Eliya is Sri Lanka’s most evocative colonial hill station, a town of mock-Tudor architecture, clipped hedgerows and rose gardens that earned its nickname ‘Little England’ from the British planters and administrators who built their retreat from the tropical heat here in the 19th century. At nearly 1,900 metres above sea level, the air is crisp and cool, the mornings often misty and the light at golden hour is unlike anywhere else on the island.