Claughton House
Tangalle

Claughton House is one of Ampersand's Top 10 Private Villas in Asia.

A secret tucked along Sri Lanka’s untouched southern curve, Claughton House is one of those rare villas that quietly redefines what it means to get away. Designed by the late, great Geoffrey Bawa, the father of ‘tropical modernism’, this five-bedroom hideaway is part architecture, part atmosphere and entirely in a league of its own.

The house sits high on a headland between Dikwella and Tangalle, just above one of the region’s most golden, wave-lapped beaches. With its low-slung profile, cool coral-stone walls and temple-door entrances, it feels as if it has always been here, sculpted into the headland, softened by salt air and age. You arrive and the world falls away.

Inside, there are five bedrooms, two doubles and three twins, sleeping up to 11 guests, all with open-air bathrooms, gauzy mosquito nets, polished floors and just the right amount of patina. There’s a large open-plan lounge for lazy, shaded afternoons, a dining veranda where breezes blow through at dusk, a games and TV room for when the sun gets too much. And the pool, built into the natural rock and lapped by jungle foliage, looks out across the bay like a secret lagoon, perfect for sunset swims and morning coffees.

Every detail here exudes relaxation, whether it’s the sunken sofas, the scent of frangipani wafting through or the fact that you needn’t lift a finger the entire time you’re here. The house is fully staffed, with a superb chef (who makes excellent curry feasts and light Western lunches), housekeepers, a gardener and a villa manager who handles everything discreetly. You can wander down to the beach below, a wild stretch of sand and surf with barely another soul in sight, or stay put, as most guests do, in the privacy of your green-lawned paradise, watching whales from the terrace or monkeys in the trees.

What’s magical about Claughton is its ability to feel like home while giving you the space and stillness that only a true retreat can. It’s perfect for families, for couples travelling together or for a celebratory escape with friends, the kind of place that makes people say “we should come back here every year.”

Geoffrey Bawa’s legacy is not just in the villa’s lines and light, but in its sense of ease, grace and timelessness. Claughton House is the kind of place where time slows down, where laughter carries on the breeze and where every sunset feels like it belongs just to you.

My favourite thing is to go where I've never been.
Diane Arbus