Mas Villa is steeped in its own enthralling history. The ancestral house of a wealthy Kandian family,
its Granery, the ATUWA, once supplied food for the rebels who orchestrated a rebellion against the
British in 1848. It was burnt down by the British that year but has been carefully restored.
In the more recent past, the house has been better known for being the birth place, childhood home and resting place of the family's best known scion, the late Gamini Dissanayake. This illustrious political leader and former presidential candidate was instrumental in building the Kothmale Hydro Power Plant facility which the house is situated close by. At one time, this reservoir and, the other four built under the accelerated Mahaweli Project in the 1980s, supplied more than one half of the country's energy requirements.
In the more recent past, the house has been better known for being the birth place, childhood home and resting place of the family's best known scion, the late Gamini Dissanayake. This illustrious political leader and former presidential candidate was instrumental in building the Kothmale Hydro Power Plant facility which the house is situated close by. At one time, this reservoir and, the other four built under the accelerated Mahaweli Project in the 1980s, supplied more than one half of the country's energy requirements.