Historic Scotland places in Perth and Kinross

A 22-metre Irish-style round tower of about 1100 in Abernethy, one of only two in Scotland, with a Pictish stone at its foot and views from the top; free, key from the village museum May to September.

The site of a first-century Roman watchtower on the Gask Ridge frontier, a shallow ditch in a clearing beside the Roman road; free and open all year, a signposted mile's walk from Trinity Gask.

A tower house of the late 1400s on a hilltop near Bridge of Earn, unusual for its surviving courtyards, walled garden and pleasance; free, grounds open at all times, interior on booked tours only, a steep five-minute walk.

A tower house of about 1500 near Milnathort with a roofed corner tower of 1582, round below and square above, home of the Balfours of Burleigh; free, closed for the winter, reopens 1 April 2027 on set days.

Medieval cathedral on the Tay with a roofless 15th-century nave and tower, a working parish church in the choir and riverside grounds among old trees; free, nave closed for conservation, no parking at the gates.

Roofed 16th-century Wemyss tower house beside the River Tay near Perth, bristling with gun holes, with every room open up to a rooftop walkway and an apple orchard; open April to September, adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

A 3 m Pictish cross-slab carved with horsemen and a belled cow, unique for its projecting cross arms, inside Fowlis Wester's 13th-century church; free, open daily in daylight, with a replica in the square.

Two Ruthven tower houses on Perth's edge where James VI was held captive in 1582, with one of Scotland's oldest painted ceilings, frescoes, a secret cupboard and battlement walks; adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

A Drummond family chantry chapel of about 1507 with its stone altar and painted ceiling, beside Scotland's first public lending library near Crieff; free, open March to October with the library.

Island tower house of the 1300s in Loch Leven where Mary Queen of Scots was held and forced to abdicate in 1567, reached by Historic Scotland's boat; open April to October, adult £11 with the boat, half price in the first EH year.

26 carved Pictish stones of the 700s to 900s from the royal centre at Meigle, including the Vanora stone, in a former schoolhouse; open April to September on three days a week, adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

A first-century Roman watchtower site on the Gask Ridge, with its mound, ditch and bank in a woodland clearing beside the Roman road; free and open all year, a 400 m walk from the road.

A roofless medieval church in Muthill near Crieff with a remarkably complete free-standing Romanesque tower of the 1100s, once perhaps a stand-in for Dunblane Cathedral; free, open at all times, in the village centre.

A plain white-harled church in Strathtay near Grandtully hiding a painted ceiling of about 1636, with saints, Stewart heraldry and Death at a deathbed; free, open all year, the door needs a firm push.

A church of about 1200 in Dunning sheltering the Dupplin Cross, the only complete free-standing cross left in Pictish territory, naming King Constantine; free, closed for the winter, reopens Saturday 17 April 2027.

Arkwright's water-powered cotton mills of 1786 on a bend of the Tay, with the Bell Mill, one of the world's oldest surviving factories, and displays on the workers; open April to September, adult £8.50, half price in the first EH year.

A cruck-framed Highland cottage of the 1700s in Pitlochry, once a byre house, later a bed and breakfast; free, seen from the street with an information board.

A remarkably complete private chapel of the later Middle Ages near Auchterarder, built by the Murrays of Tullibardine with its original timber roof; free, closed for the winter, reopens daily from 1 April 2027.