Artists Chair

You won't find a café or a visitor centre here, just a simple wooden bench on a clifftop overlooking some of the rawest coastline in North Cornwall. The Artists Chair sits high above the Atlantic, pointing straight at the horizon where the sea meets sky in that particular shade of grey-blue you only get in the Southwest.

It's exactly what it sounds like - a place where painters and photographers have long stopped to work, or simply sit and stare. The view stretches for miles along the cliffs towards Bude, with rocky outcrops and that relentless swell that makes this corner of Cornwall so appealing to surfers and walkers alike. On a clear day the light is proper stunning; on a grey one, it's moody and dramatic in a different way entirely.

This isn't a honeypot attraction. You'll need a bit of effort to find it and walk to it, which means it stays quiet. Allow 20 minutes to reach it from the nearest car park, and bring a jacket - the wind up here doesn't mess about. It's free, obviously, and there's no set opening hours because it's just a viewpoint.

Walkers based at Pencuke Farm Holiday Cottages or Rosebud Farm will find this fits perfectly into a longer clifftop route. It's the kind of spot that rewards you for getting out of the car and moving on foot - not a ten-minute photo stop, but somewhere worth actually sitting for a bit. Go when the light's decent and you've got an hour to kill.