Before I begin, I wanted to inform my readers that the below photos are from a visit I made to this temple back in 2020. I waited to post this after I was done with my Vietnam series… but then I forgot.

Anyway, I had heard about Sree Thrikkaikkunnu Mahadeva Temple from a relative who told me about how big it was. There weren’t too many blogs, articles or vlogs about the temple. I mean, it’s not a tourist attraction or a popular pilgrimage site, but despite its age and size, it doesn’t see as many visitors as Peralassery temple does — which I guess is mostly due to its famous step well which people of all faiths can see.

Sree Thrikkaikkunnu Mahadeva Temple is located in the town of Koothuparambu and is 23 kms from Kannur Railway station. The locality the temple is in is called Kottayam (not to be confused by the city of the same name in central Kerala).

The temple has two sreekovils (inner sanctum) and is dedicated to Lord Shiva. You can read about the mythology surrounding the temple on this website.

You have to pay Rs. 100 for photography and Rs. 300 for videography. But like with most temples, I was told I could not photograph inside the inner sanctums.

I had come to the temple with my cousin sister, her husband, their daughter and a friend. They wanted to shoot some classical dance sequences for their daughter and my cousin’s husband, who is a music teacher, wanted to film a music video for his flute performance here.

So I decided to step out of the temple grounds to take out my drone.

(Unfortunately, for reasons cited below, my cousin’s family was unable to obtain enough good shots to complete the dance performance)

I was told I could not fly the drone above the temple and so I assured them I would limit the flight to just outside the gate.

My cousin sister’s daughter and friend are the two green and red specks you see on the left side.

We had to end filming because some local guy who was sitting by the temple entrance objected to me flying the drone near the temple, just as I was done taking the final shot. He created a ruckus and accused all of us who had come for filming saying we were not allowed to film like this. Mind you, the actual temple staff member who we paid the filming fees to, had left the temple by now (it was a Sunday).

My cousin’s husband tried reasoning with the guy, but my cousin sister said he could be drunk. None of us wanted to create a scene on temple grounds, and my cousin’s young daughter also got scared. So we all left the temple rather upset after having our evening ruined.

So just be careful about such people if you are planning to visit this temple for photography or vlogging. If you get a receipt from the temple office after paying the fee, hold on to it until you leave the temple site.

If you want some more footage, Kerala Tourism has some glimpses of the temple exterior in their video:

My cousin sister’s husband managed to record his flute performance which uses most of the drone footage I could take (watch it in HD):