Herefordshire is the place in the UK for “people who want to spiritually develop themselves”, a monk says.

Venerable Dhammaloka, a senior Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, says he can “feel” the county has the right “state of balance”.

For a person “to be happy”, he said: “They need the right environment and this environment, the nature, the air, everything in Hereford allows that.”

It comes after Dhammaloka, who had never visited Herefordshire before, selected the West Midlands region as the place for his mentee, Ishara De Silva, to set up her wellness centre.

Plantation Villa was originally founded in Sri Lanka by De Silva but in 2022, the site in Kings Caple, Herefordshire, was founded following Dhammaloka’s advice.

Ayurveda is an ancient system of medicine and healing from South Asia that has been developed over thousands of years.