Hill Fortress-Medamahanuwara Kanda / Rajagala Kanda (1339m) මැදමහනුවර කන්ද/රජගල කන්ද

Madamahanuwara Kanda/ Rajagala is a unique shape mountain situated on side of Kandy-Mahiyanganaya road at Hunnasgiriya area. It’s globular shape appearance gets attraction of everyone who travels along this road. This was in my to-do list for a long time but the forest cover on top of the mountain was discouraging the hike.
This mountain has an archeological value. King Senkadagala Senarath (1604-1634 A.C) has built a palace on top this mountain.

“ක්‍රි.ව.1604-1634 අතර රජකල සෙoකඩගල සෙනරත් රජතුමන් විසින් මෙහි මාලිගයක් කරවා මාලිගය වටා බලකොටුවක් ඉදිකරවා ඈත. මෙම මාලිගය අහස්කුස සිපගන්නා නිසා එයට අහස් මාලිගය යයි කියනු ලැබේ. අහස් මාලිගයට ආසන්නයේ දළදා මාලිගයක්ද රාජකීය පොකුණක්ද කරවා තිබී ඇත. මැදමහනුවර කන්දේ වූ බලකොටුව පෙරකල ගලේනුවර බලකොටුව යැයි කියා තිබෙන අතර ගලේනුවර බලකොටුවේ පවුර මත කාලතුවක්කු රදවා තිබී ඇත.” Quoted from “Sirilaka Esidutu Than by S.P.S.Weerasinghe.

Hunnasgiriya town is situated at base of Rajagala Kanda and the forest patch over the hill is called as Rajagala forest reserve. Don’t know it is a separate entity from Knuckles forest reserve or not.

Madamahanuwara Kanda in metric map

Unique shape of Madamahanuwara Kanda/ Rajagala Kanda

The view of Madamahanuwara Kanda / Rajagala from Hunnasgiriya town in Kandy-Mahiyanganaya road. Hunnasgiriya town is situated at base of the mountain.

Classic appearance of the mountain.

How it is seen to the closest neighbor- Nawenagala

The other side of the mountain. The view from Kodibendihinna.

This was taken when we were on Randenigala Hills.

Aerial view of Rajagala Kanda. Note though it is steep in front, there are ridges to get on it. We used right side ridge to reach the top of the mountain.

It was the independent day of 2020. After go through my to-do list, selected this ever postponed mountain to conquer. Here I got necessary information from a local source-Sanjeewa Ayya. Myself and Nuwan have joined with Indranatha at Kandy and travelled to Hunnasgiriya by his car. The weather in Knuckles area was so brightened these days for hiking.
We were warned about Maussa bushes by a local at beginning and he gave a Manna knife for protection. The lower part of the mountain is covered by Pinus forest and rest of the hill is occupied by mountainous forest.
The entry point was a concrete road just before Rajagala Hotel at main road. Soon the concrete road ends at Pinus patch. This was a continuous ascend along the Pinus plot and then we entered the forest covering of Rajagala forest reserve. Though this mountain is steep in front it has a ridge which continues with the summit on this side. Gradually we have joined with this ridge. Surprisingly we were able to notice a clear foot path on the ridge to top of the mountain. There were couple of view points as well.

The ascend along the pinus patch

Entering to the forest covering from Pinus patch. Indranatha and Nuwan.

Undergrowth was less and walking under forest patch was easy.

Reaching the first view point

We had a reasonably good view over bushes from first view point. It includes Hunnasgiriya Mountain, Victoria reservoir, Bambaragan Oya cascades, Knuckles forest reserve, Alagalla, Kandy-Mahiyanganaya road, Kodibendihinna, Kukulagala and Piduruthalagala range.

Towards Victoria reservoir and Theldeniya side. Alagalla is seen on left side of the picture.

Zoomed view of Alagalla

Hunnasgiriya Mountain.

Pointing peaks might be Knuckles five peaks

Bambaragan Oya cascades

Bambaragan Oya cascades

Winding Kandy-Mahiyanganaya road

A part of Victoria reservoir

View towards rest of the range-Kodibendihnna

This must be Kodibendihinna

The top of Kukulagala is covered by a cloud patch. Piduruthalagala range is seen behind.

Kukulagala

After enjoying the view from the first point, we moved further and came across a structure like a parapet or entrance of a building. The stones were the only remaining part of these structures. Few hundred meters before the summit, second view point was found towards same direction. Seems someone has camped there recently.

It looks like an entrance of a building

Parapet wall

.	Well established second view point of Rajagala Mountain.

View from second view point

Towards Hanthana range

When we were at second view point….Aerial photography

Closer to the summit.

The summit of the mountain was almost covered by the forest and a fairly flat area. We have noted a small pond and another set of walls on top of the mountain. These structures might be a part of an ancient building. We didn’t notice any other archeological evidences at summit of Rajagala.

The pond

Modern day involvement…..

Well preserved wall….

Could be the entrance or exit….

At highest point of Rajagala Kanda

Highest point of Rajagala kanda is covered by forest

Nawenagala through woods

Pieces of tiles

Close up of a wall

Kukulagala

When we were on top of Rajagala Kanda.

It’s height was mentioned like this….

The view over the mountain. Randenigala reservoir and Kukulagala are seen.

Hunnasgiriya town and Bambarabedda side. You can’t get this view from the mountain.

Aerial view towards Nawenagala and Knuckles forest reserve. Hunnasgiriya town and Balalgira are seen.

We moved further down to Bambarabedda side to find a view point but it was not successful. The same path was followed in return journey and we got on to a slab rock situated on side of Pinus patch. It was also a good view point.

The slab rock….

Close up of Bambaragan Oya cascades

Nawenagala

Summit of Rajagala

Back to the concrete road

End of another hike

Thanks for reading