Strathdon
Estate is located in the famed hills of Hatton. This is where most of the picturesque
tea gardens of Watawala Plantations are located, with the slopes truly
resembling a sheet of strikingly visible tea fields belonging to one Plantation
Company that lie alongside each other. Located at an elevation ranging from 915
meters to 1370mm above mean sea level, the estate records an annual rain fall
of 3500mm distributed over a period of 185 wet days on average.
Strathdon
estate consisting of 646.37 hectares of land is the largest Plantation in the
area. The cultivated extent of 403.29 Hectares comprises 55% vegetative
propagated cultivars and 45% of old seedling tea which is over a hundred years
old. The estate records an overall annual yield of 1300 kilos per hectare.
According to the history of Strathdon Estate the cultivation commenced in the
year 1913. Few known British planters during the era to follow were Mr. Edward
Charles Keyte 1961-1968 and Mr. Cornelius O Callaghan 1968.
Strathdon
Estate was in its earlier days owned by the Scottish Ceylon Tea Company and
managed by Leachmen & Co. Ltd. It was taken over by the Lands Reform
Commission and subsequently absorbed into the Janatha Estates Development
Board. With the re-privatization of Plantations on the 16th June
1992, Strathdon estate came under the management of Lankem Plantations
Ltd. and thereafter to Watawala
Plantations PLC as at present.
There is well-trained and experienced health staff that provides excellent medical facilities to the entire estate. The estate maintains a dispensary which could be well compared to a present day private hospital. In addition to their normal functions connected to the estate medical work the health staff is also in the process of conducting useful health camps, workshops and health awareness programmes, for the benefit of community. There are six well maintained child development centers to look after the children of associates. Sports meets and various activities such as concerts are held from time to time with the active participation of the parents as well.
Strathdon is popular for producing strong, bright and thick liquoring teas of CTC manufacture. These are bought by reputed tea buyers for mainly the export market. The product has good quality and has the ability to meet the competitive market demands as well.
