Castle Hill

The walk up to Castle Hill from Banff takes about twenty minutes if you're moving at a decent pace, and the effort pays off properly. You're standing on what locals reckon is an Iron Age fort - though honestly, the view is what matters now. On a clear day you can see right across the Moray Firth to the Black Isle, and the Banffshire coast stretches out below in that particular way Scottish coastlines do: dramatic without being showy.

It's free, obviously. No facilities, no café, just the hill and you. That makes it brilliant for families with older kids who can handle a woodland path, and walkers heading through Aberdeenshire will find it an easy half-hour detour worth taking. History buffs might spend longer poking about looking for earthworks, though you'll need some imagination to make sense of what you're actually seeing on the ground.

Timing matters here. Early morning mist can cling to the coast for hours, so midday is safer if weather's dodgy. The sun sets properly from up here in summer - worth planning an evening visit if you're staying nearby. If you're based at Sandend Holidays just down the road, it's a natural breakfast-time walk. Portsoy Links and Greencraig Pods are close enough that you could loop it into a broader afternoon ramble along the coastal paths. Nothing fancy, but that's exactly the point.