Sin: දිඹුලාගල dimbulāgala
‘Wood-apple Rock’ [Gunner’s Quoin, Gunner;s Rock] Rock/Observation Point, NCP Sri Lanka
From Sin: diwul/dimbul, ‘wood apple’ [Pali: udumbara]; and gala, ‘stone, rock, rocky place’.
The name for this rock formation in British colonial times was ‘Gunner’s Quoin’. ‘Quoin’ refers to a wedge used with firearms to hold them up or keep them steady- a shape that describes the block of rock here perfectly.
Both Pali texts and the modern Sinhala name suggest that the wood-apple tree [Limonia acidissima, also ‘elephant-apple’] grew here.
There has been a Buddhistc monastery here since the 12thC (now restored) and it has also been occupied by Veddas from the earliest times.
Dimbulagala hills across the lake Bdamita
