Kelani Valley Club

The Kelani Valley Club (KV Club) is one of the oldest planter's clubs in Sri Lanka. It is situated by the banks of the Seethawaka River at Avissawella, Sri Lanka. The club was established in 1884 by British planters in the region.

The Kelani Valley Club was established in 1884, by low-country Kelani Valley Planters who were mainly European settlers in Ceylon, with F. Duncan as its first president. It is located near the site where Rajasinha I of Sitawaka is reportedly have received a fatal infection from a bamboo shard, whilst returning to Sitawaka from his battle with the Portuguese at Badulla. The club gradually grew from a conventional meeting place to be the centre of fashionable social life, relaxation, entertainment and interaction amongst the British Raj and planters alike. As the KV Club is situated in the heart of the Kelani Valley sub-district, with plantations all around it, planters from near and far used to travel on horseback, or would even opt to walk from their estates to the club, to indulge in social occasions.

The Kelani Valley Club was originally established as a single-storied thatched-roof in 1884 and remained so until the 1900s when local planters took over the management. It still retains an authentic Ceylonese-British architectural outlook, in spite of the detrimental 1947 and 1989 floods that rampaged through the low-lying zones and at one point submerged the club. In 1947, flood levels rose as high as 7.6 m (25 ft) and over 4.6 m (15 ft) in 1989. At its inception the members of the Club were British, however Ceylonese planters joined the membership and now include those engaged in the Tea, Rubber and Coconut plantations in the Kelani Valley Region and who are executives of Pussellawa Plantations Ltd, Lalan Rubbers (Pvt) Ltd, Bogawantalawa Plantations Ltd, Malwatta Valley Plantations Ltd, Kelani Valley Plantations Ltd, Kegalle Plantations Ltd as well as professionals from the Seethawaka area. During the colonial era it has been famous for its elephant Races, Clay pigeon shooting and Rugby.

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