Elcho Castle
Elcho Castle near Perth is a remarkably well-preserved sixteenth-century Wemyss family fortified house above the south bank of the River Tay, one of the finest examples of a Z-plan Scottish tower house and a property in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. The walls stand to their full height with intact turrets, and the castle preserves a particularly interesting array of gunloops and shot-holes representing the adaptation of Scottish castle architecture to the age of firearms. The quality and completeness of the surviving fabric makes Elcho an exceptional survival of mid-sixteenth-century Scottish domestic and military architecture. The setting on the Tay with views across the fertile Carse of Gowrie toward Dundee and the Angus hills is one of the most attractive of any castle in Perthshire.