Auchnashelloch

Auchnashelloch is a Bronze Age fort tucked into the Perthshire landscape near Crieff - the sort of place you'll walk past without realising what you're looking at unless you know what to expect. The earthwork defences are still visible if you pay attention, concentric rings of ditches and banks that once enclosed a settlement dating back thousands of years. It's not a dramatic ruin with walls standing proud - this is archaeology as landscape archaeology should be, requiring a bit of imagination and a willingness to read the terrain.

Walkers get the most from this one. There's something satisfying about picking out the defensive lines as you move around the site, understanding how people chose and fortified this ground. Historians will find it rewarding too, especially those interested in Iron Age settlement patterns across Scotland. Families with very young children might find it underwhelming - there's no visitor centre, no interpretation boards, just the earthworks themselves. You're paying with your own knowledge here.

Allow twenty minutes to an hour depending on how deeply you want to examine the site. There's no charge that we're aware of, and you can visit any time. The location works brilliantly if you're based at one of the local holiday parks - Twenty Shilling Wood is five miles away, with Loch Earn Leisure Park and Comrie Holiday Park both within easy reach. It's the sort of stop you combine with a proper walk in the area rather than a destination in itself, but it adds genuine depth to understanding how people lived in Perthshire long before Crieff existed.