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.
Plan Longwood Shola
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.
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.
Best time
October to March is the cooler, drier season in the Cauvery delta.
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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.
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.
4 places to stay near Longwood Shola
2 things to do near Longwood Shola
3 places to shop near Longwood Shola
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.
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.
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.
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
Top experiences around Kotagiri
5 more places around Kotagiri, each worth a day of its own.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Add a nearby businessLongwood Shola — at a glance
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.
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.
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.
Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.
What’s near Longwood Shola
Where Longwood Shola is
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).
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.
Image credits
- Longwood Shola:SeethaG · CC BY-SA 4.0