Turnia nad Szczotami (1,741 m a.s.l.) is one of the most secretive and untouched crags in the High Tatras — a wild rocky peak draped in virgin cliff forest, steeped in highland legends of outlaw treasure. It rises along a ridge branching off from the Wołoszyn massif and dropping toward the Roztoka Valley, forming a rugged, almost entirely pristine corner of the Polish Tatras.
The northeastern slopes of the peak carry the evocative name 'Szczoty' — steep, precipitous walls cloaked in ancient forest dominated by the Swiss stone pine. The summit itself is crowned by a mixed stone pine and spruce forest with scattered larch, giving the whole place an otherworldly, fairy-tale atmosphere. The ridge continues southeast toward Roztocka Turniczka (1,536 m), while Wyżnie and Niżnie Siodło (saddles) separate the crag from the Zagonny Zwornik junction. This is the Tatras as it once was — raw, silent and entirely left to nature.
How to reach the summitLocal highland folklore has long spoken of outlaw treasure hidden in the slopes of the Szczoty — the name itself, known in the Podhale dialect as 'scoty', most likely refers to steep, inaccessible terrain rather than being a distortion of the word for 'peaks'. Turnia nad Szczotami remains a summit you admire from a distance, one that jealously guards its wildness.