In Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands, set within a private ten-acre estate overlooking the UNESCO-listed Knuckles Mountain Range, Aarunya Nature Resort unveils Sol Sanctuary this season. The new retreat is a star-oriented, temple-inspired villa designed for restoration, ritual, and refined immersion in nature. It reflects the resort’s founding principles: minimal intervention, maximal connection.
Sol Sanctuary is a 165-square-metre villa meticulously handcrafted by village artisans under the creative direction of architect Nath Rankothge and his father Lal Rankothge, an environmentalist. Sanskrit for “first rays of the sun,” Aarunya was conceived by the Rankothges in partnership with Nath’s uncle K R G Wijesundara, a highly respected Sri Lankan businessman and philanthropist, not as a resort, but as a spiritual homecoming and homage to land, legacy, and light.
Aligning the sky and soul
Set apart from the resort’s nine other villas, Sol Sanctuary boasts elemental design, drawing from ancient Sri Lankan traditions of celestial orientation and sacred geometry. The two-bedroom villa opens to the path of the rising sun. Its domed stone architecture features star-gazing oculi and a crescent moon-shaped plunge pool that mirrors the sky and reflects the sunlight onto the vaulted ceilings.
Interiors showcase raw elegance: hand-hewn basins, natural wood textures, open-air rain showers, and expansive verandas that dissolve into the surrounding forest. Guests have complete privacy, with personalised butler service and views across spice groves, tea gardens and mist-wrapped hills.
Aarunya’s other villas, including the Sky Pavillion, Sky Tented Villas and Sky Habitat Villas, are built by local craftsmen using traditional techniques. Each villa features a private plunge pool and decks with far-reaching valley and mountain views. The original Sky Pavilion Villas were inspired by Sri Lankan ambalamas (resting pavillions for travellers), while the Sky Tented Villas deliver a romantic glamping experience above the forest canopy. To honour the natural surroundings, no trees were felled during construction.
The resort promotes nature conservation, habitat enrichment & sustainable agriculture initiatives funded by the Aarunya Nature Foundation. Guests’ connection to the land is enhanced through different experiences like the Sundown Tea Sessions by the main pool in the new kopi kade (coffee house), which is inspired by the age-old tea and coffee traditions of Sri Lankan villages.
Wellness, culinary and beyond
At the heart of Aarunya lies the Aarogya Wellness Centre and Spa, where ancient Ayurveda philosophies are reinterpreted through a contemporary international wellness lens. Guests can embark on personalised wellness journeys which incorporate daily treatments, consultations with Ayurveda doctors, dosha-tailored meals, and forest-framed practices including yoga, pilates, and aqua movement.
A newly opened stone bathhouse — complete with soaking tubs under a Nutmeg tree — draws on village bathing rituals, inviting deep restoration through scrubs and oils made from estate-grown avocados, coconuts, and herbs.
Dining is a central part of the Aaryunya experience, with menus guided by season, soul, and soul. Guests can choose between three restaurants. Aahaara Speciality Sri Lankan Dining Restaurant is the resort’s signature traditional mudhouse restaurant, serving hyperlocal dishes with a contemporary twist using organic estate-grown produce.
The Verandah, perched at the highest point of the estate, blends global culinary techniques with local Sri Lankan flavours and overlooks the main pool and surrounding hills with tea estates and spice gardens. Finally The Aahaasa Tea Pavilion is located in the middle of Aarunya’s tea estate and hosts private tea tastings and private dining – a curated introduction to the island’s terroir and high tea traditions.
Floating breakfasts and candlelit in-villa are also available for guests to tailor every culinary moment to their own rhythm. Each meal is an invitation to slow down, reconnect, and savour. Whether enjoyed under the stars, beside water, or at the edge of a misty morning.
Sol Sanctuary is a gateway to one of Sri Lanka’s most biodiverse regions. Aarunya offers nature walks, birdwatching trails and sunrise yoga. Beyond the estate, guests can explore the island’s Cultural Triangle from the sacred temples of Kandy to hidden village waterfalls and the ancient rock citadel of Sigiriya. Immersive local off-the-beaten-track excursions include discovering the Bambarakiri Ella Waterfall and visiting the historic Aluvihare Rock Temple.
Living in harmony with nature
The estate is solar-powered, plastic-free, and water-self-sufficient. The Aarunya Nature Foundation oversees conversation efforts such as biodiversity enhancement, biodynamic farming, community development and environmental education for local schoolchildren, ensuring that the land’s benefits ripple outward. In autumn of 2025, Aarunya will unveil its brand-new, bamboo- and timber-built Nature Pavilion, which will serve as a hub for ecological research supporting PhD students, specialist consultants, and naturalists in collaboration with the University of Peradeniya.
It will elevate the guest experience through immersive activities tied to habitat and ecosystem research, estate-based production, and community-led conservation initiatives including environmental education programs for local schoolchildren.
Aarunya seeks to become Sri Lanka’s first fully biodynamic hospitality property — a model for nature-integrated, impact-led luxury.
