Coonoor travel guide

(When you arrive by train or bus (which doesn’t always stop at the main bus stand if going on to Ooty), the main town of Lower Coonoor will be to the east, across the river. Upper Coonoor, with the better hotels 2-3 km away, is further east.)

Smaller and much less developed than Ooty, Coonoor is an ideal starting point for nature walks and rambles through villages. There’s no pollution, no noise and very few people. The covered market, as with many towns and cities in South India, is almost medieval and cobblers, jewellers, tailors, pawn brokers and merchants sell everything from jasmine to beetroot. The picturesque hills around the town are covered in coffee and tea plantations.

The Wellington Barracks, 3 km northeast of Lower Coonoor, which are the raison d’être for the town, were built in 1852. They are now the headquarters of the Indian Defence Services Staff College and also of the Madras Regiment, which is over 250 years old, the oldest in the Indian Army.

Lamb’s Rock, on a high precipice, 9 km away, has good views over the Coimbatore plains and coffee and tea estates on the slopes. At Dolphin’s Nose (12 km away, several buses 0700-1615), you can see Catherine Falls, a further 10 km away (best in the early morning). Droog (13 km away, buses 0900, 1345) has ruins of a 16th-century fort used by Tipu Sultan, and requires a 3-km walk.

Kotagiri ((29 km from Ooty, frequent services from Coonoor, Mettupalayam Railway Station and Ooty) has an altitude of 1980 m. It sits on the northeast crest of the plateau overlooking the plains. It has a milder climate than Ooty. The name comes from Kotar–Keri, the street of the Kotas who were one of the original hill tribes and who have a village to the west of the town. You can visit some scenic spots from here: St Catherine Falls (8 km) and Elk Falls (7 km), or one of the peaks, Kodanad Viewpoint (16 km) – reached through the tea estates or by taking one of the several buses that run from 0610 onwards – or Rangaswamy Pillar, an isolated rock, and the conical Rangaswamy Peak.