Albania’s restored stone houses throw open the doors to visitors

Sunlight pours through a tiny stone window, causing the wooden floorboards to creak as they warm up. The sound of sheep’s bells filters in from a passing flock. The scent of baking bread mingles with smoke from the previous evening’s fire. I wake up feeling I’ve been transported back to another time – but in reality I’m in modern-day Albania.

I’m staying in a kulla, one of the traditional stone tower houses that are found throughout northern Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia. They once protected families during times of conflict and sheltered weary travellers on trade routes, before mostly falling into disrepair in the 20th century.