The headquarters of the National Archives is situated along Reid Avenue in close proximity to Independence square, Colombo and has a branch office in Kandy.

The Department of the Government Archivist was formally established in 1947 and, following the enactment of the National Archives Law No.

Records held in the Department of National Archives include those of the Portuguese-, Dutch- (Land Tombo, Head Tombo and School Tombo Council Minutes and practically all records of the Dutch administration on the island) and British periods, copies of Crown Grants, Grain Tax Registers, Nila Pangu- & Praveni Pangu registers, as well as records since independence 1948, including those of Government-, Semi Government- and other institutions.

Apart from these there is a large collection of donated or purchased papers, manuscripts and books from institutions and individuals such as the Horagolla library (part of the Bandaranaike estate), the Times of Ceylon Collection and Buddhist temples.

Collections of election literature, maps of the island (both colonial maps and post-independence Surveyor General's maps), government publications such as pre-independence Ordinances (1796-1947), Government Gazettes, Blue Books (1821-1937), Sessional Papers (1860 onward), Administration Reports (1867 onward) and Hansard reports (1870 onward) also form part of the Archives' stock.