The Nilgiris region comes under the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The beautiful hilly landscape of the place attracted many people during the British rule, which includes the native Royal rulers and also the British rulers. Numerous summer palaces were thus built in various places of the Nilgiris by the rulers. The numbers of such palaces is about 60, which includes both the small and the big ones.

Some rulers from Baroda also came here and built many beautiful palaces in the Nilgiris. The English architectural traits are followed while building most of these 19th century palaces. One of the biggest and most well known palaces of the Nilgiris is the palace of the Mysore king. This beautiful palace is situated at Fern hill near Ooty and that's why it is popularly known as the Fern hill Palace. The most attractive portion of the palace is its extraordinary ballroom, which has a high ornamented ceiling. But this palace is now transformed into a luxurious hotel.

The other palaces have now vanished and most of them have also undergone innumerable changes in recent decades. Others have been transformed into hotels and few into schools or guesthouses. Few of them were left in a very bad condition.

There are also few lesser-known forts in the Nilgiris. These forts are found mainly in the Doorg, which were built by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore in the late 18th century.