Arippu Fort - Mannar

The Arripu Fort in Mannar is a small two bastion fort originally built by the invading Portugese & then later taken over by the Dutch in 1658.

Robert Knox (the English sea captain in the service of the British East India Company) along with his shipmates landed at Trincomalee in 1659 due to stormy weather & was taken capture by the Kandyan King - Rajasinghe II. It was to this Dutch Fort, incidentally, that he & his companion Stephen Ruthland escaped in 1679 by walking through Anuradhapura, after his 19 year captivity in the Kandyan Kingdom. The Dutch treated Knox generously & transported him to Jakarta (a then Dutch Colony) after which he had returned to England in 1680.

Not forgetting his subordinates, the first Governor of Ceylon, Fredric North during the British rule, converted this fort into a Bungalow for the officers supervising the Pearl fisheries.

Another piece of lost colonial history, in the far corners of the island.