Kadugannawa Pass and the National Railway Museum from Kandy

Kadugannawa Pass was the main gateway to the Kandyan kingdom from the west. Portuguese and Dutch armies that tried to force it were ambushed in the forest at Balana, a little to the south, and the kings kept the approaches deliberately roadless.

The British took Kandy in 1815 and set out to make the pass usable. Governor Edward Barnes ordered a carriage road from Colombo, and Captain William Dawson of the Royal Engineers directed its hardest section up the escarpment. It was completed in the mid-1820s, and legend says it fulfilled a prophecy that Kandy would fall when a road was bored through rock.

Dawson Tower stands on a knoll beside the main road at the top of Kadugannawa Pass. The white brick column, modelled on a lighthouse, was paid for by public subscription after Dawson died in 1829. A spiral stair inside is sometimes open, depending on the state of repair.

The pierced rock of Kadugannawa lies just below the summit, where the original road passes through a short tunnel cut in a single boulder. Traffic now uses a bypass, and you can walk through. From the bends below, the flat-topped mountain of Bible Rock, or Batalegala, fills the view to the west.

The National Railway Museum occupies the former goods shed and sidings at Kadugannawa station. It was opened in 2014 to mark 150 years of railways in Sri Lanka, and brings together locomotives, rolling stock and equipment from across the network.

The collection of the National Railway Museum is modest and well kept. Outside stand steam and early diesel locomotives and a narrow-gauge engine. Inside are signalling instruments, station clocks, ticket machines, uniforms and photographs of the line's construction.

The Kadugannawa incline is the stretch of railway that climbs the escarpment from Rambukkana, gaining about 425 metres in 21 kilometres. It was the most difficult part of the Colombo to Kandy line, with a ruling gradient of about 1 in 45, a dozen tunnels and a ledge cut across a cliff at Sensation Rock.

Riding the incline is the best way to appreciate Kadugannawa. Trains between Colombo and Kandy still use the original alignment, and the views of Bible Rock from the left-hand side going up are superb. A short ride from Kandy or Peradeniya to Kadugannawa takes about 30 minutes.

Visiting Kadugannawa from Kandy takes 30 to 45 minutes by road, west on the A1 through Peradeniya and Pilimathalawa. The museum is beside the station in the town, and the tower and pierced rock are two kilometres further on. A tuk-tuk can link them.

The National Railway Museum charges a small entrance fee and generally opens during the day throughout the week, though hours are not always kept. Lankan Stays & Trails combines Kadugannawa with the three temples loop or a tea factory on the same road, or uses it as a break on the transfer to Colombo.

Kadugannawa suits railway enthusiasts, families with children who like engines and anyone interested in how the hill country was opened up. It also suits travellers who want a short, undemanding outing with a train ride attached.

Kadugannawa is not a scenic highlight on the scale of the upper hill country, and the main road is busy and noisy. Visitors with only a day or two in Kandy can see the pass from the window on the way to or from Colombo and leave the museum for another time.