Longwood Shola

A protected shola forest reserve on Kotagiri's eastern edge, known for birdwatching and for sightings of endemic species such as the Nilgiri wood pigeon. It was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on 24 May 2023, covering 116.01 hectares.

Longwood Shola, Kotagiri
Practical guide

Plan Longwood Shola

Who's going?Tailor Longwood Shola to your trip
Typepark
Nearest baseKotagiri
DistrictThe Nilgiris
Best timeOctober to March is the cooler, drier…
Time neededAbout an hour
EntryFree
Places to visit6Listed businesses9

Longwood Shola is planned from Kotagiri, one of the travel bases in The Nilgiris district. Use Kotagiri for stays, food and local transport, then plan this place as a focused stop.

What to expect

Highlights

Getting there

How to visit

  • Base yourself in Kotagiri or nearby in The Nilgiris, then confirm the last-mile route locally before travel.
  • If access depends on temple, museum or seasonal rules, check on the day before you go.
Timing

Best time

October to March is the cooler, drier season in the Cauvery delta.

Weather in Longwood SholaSeasonal guide

Live forecast loads in your browser.

Today at Longwood Shola
Sunrise6:13 am
Sunset6:33 pm
Golden hour best light5:33 pm–6:33 pm
Blue hour after sunset6:33 pm–6:58 pm
Sun sets toward compass bearingW · 279°
Moon tonight🌖 Waning gibbous · 83%
South-west monsoon. June to September is the south-west monsoon in Tamil Nadu. Expect heavy showers, mostly in bursts rather than all day — carry rain cover, allow extra time for getting around, and note that ferries and open-air sites are the first things affected.

Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.

Stay · eat · do · rent · see · shop

Stays, food & things to do near Longwood Shola

Verified hotels, homestays, restaurants, experiences, sights, shops and rentals around Longwood Shola — commission-free, with direct contact. Filter by what you need.

2 things to do near Longwood Shola

K
Keystone Foundation
Things to do
Top pick
Conservation organisation
Keystone Foundation

The organisation that has done more than anything else to make this small town matter, headquartered on Groves Hill Road since the 1990s. Its campus is open to visitors on weekdays and it publishes its own visiting hours.

Commission-freeView details
N
Nilgiri Natural History Society
Things to do
Natural history society
Nilgiri Natural History Society

A natural history society founded in Kotagiri in 2009 to tell the story of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve through field learning rather than display cases. It runs conservation education, film festivals and field programmes across the hills.

Commission-freeView details

Book with the place itself. India’s cyber-crime coordination centre warned in April 2025 that convincing copies of hotel and pilgrimage booking sites are being pushed through sponsored search and social ads, taking payment for rooms the property never hears about. Every listing here links to the business’s own contact details and its own Google or Bing profile — we take no commission and sit in nobody’s payment path. If a booking page reached you through an ad, check the address bar against the property’s own site before you pay. Fraud can be reported on cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930.

Ranked

The best of Kotagiri, ranked

Longwood Shola sits in Kotagiri, and these rank everything verified across the town rather than this one spot — built from the same listings shown above, ordered by the strength of the source evidence behind each entry rather than by anyone's star score. Every card shows how many places are really on it. Nobody pays to appear.

Across the whole of Kotagiri

Ranked guides

Top experiences around Kotagiri

5 more places around Kotagiri, each worth a day of its own.

viewpointKodanad View Point

10.4 km · ~17 min by cab

A viewpoint near Kotagiri overlooking the Bhavani valley and, on clear days, the plains of Kerala's Wayanad and Mysore.

waterfallCatherine Falls

6.6 km · ~16 min by auto

A twin-tiered waterfall near Kotagiri, one of the tallest in the Nilgiris, formed on the Kallar river. Tamil Nadu Tourism and the district administration both say it takes its name from the wife of M.D. Cockburn, the planter credited with bringing coffee to Kotagiri, though the older form St Catherine's Falls was already in use.

viewpointRangaswamy Pillar and Peak

9.2 km · ~15 min by cab

A rock pillar and viewpoint east of Kotagiri associated with a local Rangaswamy temple legend, offering views over the Nilgiri plateau. Sources place it differently: OpenStreetMap maps the cliff at one point and Wikipedia gives another about 4.5 km further east, while Wikipedia's own text calls it 20 km from Kotagiri, which matches neither.

heritageElk Falls, Kotagiri

5.4 km · ~13 min by auto

Elk Falls, also called Uyilatty Falls after the village beside it, drops in the hills north of Kotagiri; the district administration lists it among the town's waterfalls and the usual published figure is about 7 km out. The fall itself is on no map we can read, so the marker here sits on Uyilatty village, 7.4 km from the bus stand by routed road, and not on the water.

heritageJohn Sullivan Memorial (Kannerimukku Bungalow), Kotagiri

2.3 km · 29 min walk

This restored stone bungalow at Kannerimukku near Kotagiri was one of the earliest European residences in the Nilgiris, associated with John Sullivan, the British collector who opened up the hills from 1819. It now houses a memorial and small museum on Nilgiri history run by a heritage trust, 3.4 km from the Kotagiri bus stand by routed road.

Roampedia is commission-free — own or know a stay, eatery, guide or shop near Longwood Shola? List it and it appears here once verified.

Add a nearby business
Before you go

Longwood Shola — at a glance

TimingsDaylight hours; early morning for the birds
Best timeSeptember to November and December to February; leech season is June to September

Entry: No gate and no ticket. It is a reserve forest managed by the District Forest Officer, Nilgiris Forest Division; ask locally before going far in.

Getting here

How to reach Longwood Shola

3.4 km and about four minutes from the Kotagiri bus stand by routed road, or 3.9 km and rather under an hour on foot. Coonoor is 21.6 km from the town, Coimbatore Junction 71.8 km, Coimbatore airport (CJB) 74.4 km.

Getting around Longwood Shola

We have not assessed physical access at this place yet. Across India, step-free routes, handrails and accessible toilets are the exception rather than the rule, and pavements are often interrupted — if step-free access matters to you, contact the site or a local operator before committing to the trip.

If you need help at Longwood Shola
112All emergencies (police · fire · medical)The single number to call in any emergency (ERSS).

Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.

Nearby

What’s near Longwood Shola

heritageElk Falls, Kotagiri 5.4 km · ~13 min by auto · straight line
waterfallCatherine Falls 6.6 km · ~16 min by auto · straight line
viewpointDolphin's Nose, Coonoor 8.1 km · ~13 min by cab · straight line
viewpointRangaswamy Pillar and Peak 9.2 km · ~15 min by cab · straight line
heritageRalliah Dam 9.7 km · ~16 min by cab · straight line
heritageBrooklane Coonoor Tea Factory 10.0 km · ~17 min by cab · straight line
viewpointKodanad View Point 10.4 km · ~17 min by cab · straight line
viewpointLamb's Rock 10.7 km · ~18 min by cab · straight line
heritageHighfield Tea Estate and Factory 11.7 km · ~20 min by cab · straight line
heritageWellington Gymkhana Club 12.3 km · ~21 min by cab · straight line
parkSim's Park 12.5 km · ~21 min by cab · straight line

All 6 places to visit in Kotagiri →

On the map

Where Longwood Shola is

Good to know

Longwood Shola — frequently asked

When is the best time to visit Longwood Shola?

October to March is the cooler, drier season in the Cauvery delta.

What are the entry fee and timings at Longwood Shola?

Entry: No gate and no ticket. It is a reserve forest managed by the District Forest Officer, Nilgiris Forest Division; ask locally before going far in.. Timings: Daylight hours; early morning for the birds.

How do I reach Longwood Shola?

Base yourself in Kotagiri or nearby in The Nilgiris, then confirm the last-mile route locally before travel. If access depends on temple, museum or seasonal rules, check on the day before you go.

How much time do I need for Longwood Shola?

About an hour.

What else is near Longwood Shola?

Nearby you can pair John Sullivan Memorial (Kannerimukku Bungalow), Kotagiri (2.3 km), Elk Falls, Kotagiri (5.4 km), Catherine Falls (6.6 km), Dolphin's Nose, Coonoor (8.1 km).

Read before you go

Longwood Shola guides, stories & itineraries

We have not published a story about Longwood Shola itself yet. These cover Kotagiri, the town it sits in, and the wider district.

Around Kotagiri

Longwood Shola sits in Kotagiri, so these cover the streets, buildings and surroundings around it.

Tamil Nadu-wide guides & itineraries

Route-level itineraries and practical guides for the rest of Tamil Nadu.

See all 11 The Nilgiris guides & stories →

Image credits
  • Longwood Shola:SeethaG · CC BY-SA 4.0