If you’re a history buff, take a look through St Mark’s Church and peruse the old headstones. Inside is a plaque commemorating the elephant hunter Major Rogers, who was killed by lightning.
Legend has it that following a particularly severe thunderstorm in Haputale in 1845, Rogers stepped onto his veranda and proclaimed, ‘It’s all over now’ to his wife. Ahh, not so fast, matey: one last bolt struck him dead. Relatives of the 1500 elephants he killed in a four-year stint probably trumpeted in glee. Rogers’ actual gravestone near Nuwara Eliya is now cracked in half, reputedly by another bolt of celestial energy.
