LLM Exclusive April / Isla’s Ridge in Palani Hills, Tamil Nadu, India / By Veidehi Gite / Publisher LLM Reporters

Two hours from Pollachi (also Madurai), a steep ascent through a hairpin bend road makes way for long views of the mountain ranges, and brings you to Palani Hills in Tamil Nadu, India. Palani Hills shows up with towering colonial-era pine, cotton, coffee, pepper, and eucalyptus trees – while tufts of cotton scattered across the ground like fallen snow.

The road narrowed as we crossed Manjalparappu Village, before rolling down the final miles to Isla’s Ridge, a CGH Earth Saha property that truly felt like arriving at ‘the threshold to a world of beauty and reverie’.

At 1,200 metres above sea level in the Western Ghats, the Palani Hills are a Shola-forest biodiversity hot spot, and the silence here was almost tangible as I stepped into my weekend home – two whitewashed bungalows set on a ridge.

From the hilltop, Isla’s Ridge felt almost literary. As I sipped coffee sourced from a nearby plantation and ate a slice of lemon cake – Isla’s recipe – on a patterned old rug by the ridge, Shyni, the property manager, urged me to leave my gadgets behind and wander into the untouched wilderness.

The designer-owner, Isla Van Damme from Belgium, has indeed set the scene like an riveting novel – tall trees rustling with birdsongs, outdoor pool glinting in the sunshine, gentle breeze ruffling the veranda curtains, and each corner of the property arranged with antique furniture in wood, colourful rugs, and Isla’s own art pieces.

She calls it ‘Masala architecture,’ not belonging to one style but a congregation of everything she’s collected over the years.

Twin bungalows and the rooms

Most rooms feature balconies that overlook uninterrupted ridge views

The twin villas on the estate stretch across separate wings that connect almost discreetly, so you move through them in fragments. Balconies in four out of five rooms overlook uninterrupted ridge views.

A single, more spacious ground-floor room opens directly into the garden, the only one that does. Every room has an open plan bathroom, where the bathroom doors have been replaced with a colourful saree, a long, traditional South Indian garment.

Above, the roof holds its own logic: “It has local features of a tin roof, with terracotta tiles lining beneath it…so to keep it cool in summer,” Isla told me, almost in passing. The rest, she admits, is instinctive layering – “a bit of Mughal arches, Bohemian, European – it’s a masala fusion where styles overlap without ever feeling forced.”

The veranda is where everything settles into that idea. A turquoise bench sits against the wall, flanked by cane chairs with red cushions, while metal vases with fresh flowers rest on the tables.

Nothing feels new, and that’s deliberate. “None of this furniture has been made commercially…it’s all been sourced…all been lived with already,” Isla said, which explains the subtle inconsistencies – the mismatched wood tones, the way nothing aligns too perfectly.

Evenings arrive quietly. I stretched out on a low daybed, the fabric a little coarse, coffee cooling quickly in the open air.

Bougainvillea leans into the space, untrimmed. The warm, rustic touch, antique centre tables, and glass-fronted cabinets come straight from Isla’s own collection. Through large French windows and verandas, the interiors flow into the gardens and pool terrace.

There’s no sense of arrangement in the silence – only the slow accumulation of how these bungalows feel less like something designed and more like something that has settled, gradually, into place.

The artist behind Isla’s Ridge

Isla took over this 40-acre old coffee and pepper estate in 2016

Isla – often called Loulou – is the Belgian-born creator of the project. I learned that she was born in Kodaikanal in 1945 and later lived between Mumbai, Brussels, and London as a high-end designer.

She calls Isla’s Ridge an extension of her home and took over this 40-acre old coffee and pepper estate in 2016. As one travel writer observed, she “traded her lives in Belgium and Goa…

like a salmon going up the river to its breeding place,” determined to sculpt this sanctuary in her birthplace. Isla still visits often – on our last day, I spotted her chatting with guests over chai. In many ways, the estate feels like her personal artwork.

Farm-to-table cuisine

Meals can be taken al fresco with stunning views across the mountains

The set menu at Isla’s Ridge follows a produce-led format rooted in continental cooking with local adaptations. Breakfast typically features fresh juices, breads, and artisanal jams such as mulberry, fig, and orange with rotating South Indian dishes like dosa, idli, pongal, or puttu. Butter and cheese from Kodaikanal is served alongside.

Lunches are lighter, built around one Indian main paired with multiple salads – tuna mayo, French beans with sesame dressing, or mixed legumes alongside regional dishes such as aloo paratha or appam with stew.

Dinners unfold as three-course meals: soups made from garden produce (carrot, tomato, or mixed greens), mains such as shepherd’s pie, baked vegetables, roasted chicken, or pasta, and desserts including cakes or a jaggery-sweetened version of banana flambé.

High tea features lemon cakes and cookies made using estate-grown fruit.

The kitchen garden supplies greens, herbs, vegetables, and fruits from five spinach varieties, jackfruits and beans to avocados and guava shaping the seasonal menu.

A single indoor dining room, anchored by an attached library, is where meals are served in a book-lined setting. Outside, multiple seating options open toward the ridge: a table set under a tree, and several others arranged around the main dining area.

Shyni, the property manager, defines the approach: “We curate Isla’s menu, mostly like French village cuisine. While the menu is generally set, we customise as per our guests.”

Open-air swimming pool with ridge vistas

The long, stone-edged outdoor pool blends into the landscape, rather than dominating it

The long, stone-edged outdoor pool sits like a quiet axis of the estate, mirroring the whitewashed villas and blending into the landscape, rather than dominating it. On its extreme end stands a thatched seating with sun loungers.

It also serves as a water body, occasionally drawing wildlife. Roaming freely were two friendly horses – Potluck (female) and Blue Diamond (male), while chickens and ducks wandered across Isla’s personal lawns.

The surrounding Palani Hills ecosystem presses in close. Bonnet macaques line the edges, and I was told that a gaur (Indian bison) wanders in to drink from the pool sometimes.

There has even been a rare sighting of a panther, an indicator of how undisturbed this terrain remains. Birdlife is constant – often seen are drongos, red-whiskered bulbuls, mynas, Indian robins, and sunbirds flitting through the gardens. One morning, when Shyni led me on a slow, deliberate walk into the woods, we spotted Minivets, Indian pitta and peacocks.

Nearby attractions in Palani Hills

Local excursions inlcude a trip to a nearby coffee plantation

My excursions from Isla’s Ridge stayed close to its beat. A short drive of three kilometres led to a waterfall near Pullaveni in Dindigul, reached through a narrow forested trail. Another morning was spent at Thadian Kudisai Estate, a 110-acre coffee plantation along the Thandikudi–Sithodu road, about 7.2 km away from Isla’s Rdge.

Walking through its shaded slopes, the scale and complexity of coffee cultivation became apparent.

As the owner, Shekhar Nagarajan, explained: “Arabica is the main. We don’t want to be left without coffee so we’re already working with newer varieties,” pointing to experimental strains like Stenophylla and Liberica being introduced in response to climate change.

This estate, in his words, are both a legacy and a laboratory. “We built this specific property in 1915 but we’ve been in plantations since the 1870s, with each generation refining how coffee is grown, processed, and preserved,” he told me. Beyond these, one can also visit the Murugan temple at Thandikudi, take forest trails across the Palani Hills, and, for those willing to drive further, the lakes and viewpoints of Kodaikanal are worth a detour.

On my last morning, over a final cup of estate-grown coffee, the departure felt like finishing a well-loved novel – complete, yet quietly asking to be returned to in memory.

Factbox

Standard rooms roughly start from £123 (low season) and can go up to £240 per night (high season).

Address: Manjalparappu Rd, P.O, Perumparai, Tamil Nadu 624212
Phone: +91 96339 92243
Website: cghearth.com/islas-ridge

Images courtesy of Isla’s Ridge