Introduction

Binsar is located in the serene and heavenly Kumaon hills, in the state of Uttaranchal India, at an altitude of 2,412 meters above the sea level. It lies 25 kilometres north east of the town of Almora and is accessible by road. Binsar is situated in the midst of a forest reserve known as the ‘Binsar Reserve’ which has been declared as a wild life sanctuary. Scattered here and there are a few houses lying apart from each other which to be precise are eight in number. The reserve stretches within an area of 45.59 square kilometres.

Apparently the name ‘Binsar’ was given to the place after the name of the presiding deity of Lord “Vineshwara” in the temple here. As the legend goes, Binsar is said to have been a hill resort since the time of the ‘Katyoori’ kings, who reigned the area of Kumaon up to 700 A.D. and thereafter the ‘Chand’ kings who ruled Kumaon up to 1790 A.D. Whatever, it may be, the presence of an ancient ‘Shiva’ temple and that of his consort Goddess ‘Parvati’ in between a dense forest is proof enough for the place to have been inhabited and visited by people for quite a few centuries now.

Later on the British colonizers of India found that Binsar was quite similar climatically to their native land, as they went on to build their glorious estates and farms throughout the hills of Kumaon including Binsar. Hence, the place also finds a mention in the ‘Atkinson’s Gazetteer’ framed in the 1800s.

Lieutenant General Sir Henry Ramsay, a cousin of Lord Dalhousie (the Viceroy of India) – the then Commissioner of Kumaon popularly known as the “Uncrowned King of Kumaon”, a brilliant administrator and one of the few Europeans to be so greatly loved by the people of Kumaon was in service here from 1856 – 1885. After wandering about the entire Kumaon hills for more than a decade, he was so enthralled and enchanted with the sylvan beauty of this part of the world that he decided to settle here permanently and in furtherance of this objective, he purchased this property now known as the ‘Binsar Estate’ and later on the neighbouring state of ‘Khali’ to add to his prized possession…

It was a well known fact that Ramsay used to hold his courts at the Binsar Estate during summer. After his retirement from service Sir Henry Ramsay continued to live here and did not return home after five or six years to the United Kingdom and had no intentions of doing so until he was called back home under the pretext of illness of his some near and dear relative.