Photo: FLASHPACKER TRAVELGUIDE (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A self-guided audio walk around Galle Fort, the walled town on a rocky headland on Sri Lanka's south-west coast: a Portuguese fort taken by the Dutch East India Company in 1640, rebuilt and enlarged from 1649, and held by the British from 1796. It enters by the Main Gate the British cut through the rampart in 1873 and follows Church Street past the National Museum, Amangalla, the Groote Kerk of 1755 with its floor of gravestones, All Saints' Church and the Queen's House of 1683. At the Old Gate the British arms and the VOC emblem face each other across one passage, beside the Dutch warehouse that now holds the maritime museums and the Zwart Bastion. The eastern ramparts lead past the Akersloot Bastion and the old Dutch Hospital to Point Utrecht, the lighthouse of 1939 and the Meeran Jumma Mosque of 1904, then round Flag Rock and the western bastions, past the Sri Sudharmalaya Temple, to the Star Bastion and the Clock Tower beside the Main Gate. The narration also tells the 2004 tsunami, which the walls withstood. For cruise passengers, the port lies on the bay just east of the fort.
22 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 30 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 4 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Main Gate, Galle National Museum, Amangalla, Groote Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church), All Saints' Church, Queen's House.
Old Gate, Dutch Warehouse and the Maritime Museum, Zwart Bastion, Akersloot Bastion, Dutch Hospital, Historical Mansion Museum, Point Utrecht Bastion, Galle Lighthouse, Meeran Jumma Mosque.
Flag Rock, Triton Bastion, Sri Sudharmalaya Temple, Neptune Bastion, Aeolus Bastion, Star Bastion, Clock Tower.
The gate the British cut through the northern rampart in 1873, where the story of the Portuguese, Dutch and British fort begins.
Completed in 1755, its floor paved with gravestones from the old Dutch cemetery, many carved with skulls and crossbones.
The harbour-side gate where the British royal arms face outward and the VOC rooster and lions, dated 1669, face into the fort.
The coral-stone Dutch warehouse of the early 1670s, built into the ramparts, now two museums with a whale skeleton under its roof.
The white tower of 1939 on the Point Utrecht Bastion, built to replace a British lighthouse of 1848 that was destroyed by fire.
The southernmost bastion, once a signalling station that warned ships off the submerged rocks along this coast.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 22 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 22 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Galle Fort — the Walled Town on the Ramparts, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
22 narration points, including Dutch Hospital, Meeran Jumma Mosque, Flag Rock, Clock Tower and Main Gate. That is about 24 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 22 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.