Balintore Castle

The remains of Balintore Castle sit in a fairly lonely stretch of Aberdeenshire countryside, a few miles south of Blairgowrie. What you're looking at is a 16th-century tower house - or what's left of one - standing among fields and farmland with very little fanfare and even fewer crowds. The stone walls still reach a decent height, enough to give you a proper sense of what this place once was, though it's definitely in the ruin category rather than the "walk around indoors" sort of castle visit.

Historically minded walkers will find it worth the detour. The tower represents the defensive architecture that pepper the Scottish Highlands, and standing next to it gives you a better feel for how these fortified homes actually functioned than you'd get from a polished museum display. It's not a place to spend hours though - fifteen minutes of poking about is realistic unless you're deep into castle archaeology.

There's no entrance fee or visitor infrastructure as such. Just rock up and explore from the outside. The real draw is combining it with a wider walk around the area, or pairing it with a base at nearby Nethercraig Holiday Park - which sits just four miles away and offers decent facilities if you're planning a few days exploring the glens and lochs of the region. Best visited in decent weather since there's no shelter, and spring or autumn when the light's kinder to stone photography.