Chapel Carn Brea

You'll spot the cairn from miles around - a proper cone of stacked stones sitting 213 metres above the moorland near Penzance. Chapel Carn Brea isn't a long slog, which is exactly why it works so well as a quick hill walk when you're camped at Roselands or Lands End.

The climb takes about twenty minutes from the car park, and the path is straightforward enough that older kids won't complain too much. What makes it worth doing is the view once you're up there. On a clear day you can see Mount's Bay stretching out, Mousehole village below, and if you squint hard enough, St Michael's Mount. The cairn itself is Bronze Age, which sounds more dramatic than it looks - it's just a heap of rocks, really - but standing on top of it gives you the sense that people have been coming here for thousands of years to look at the same view.

It's free, obviously. No facilities at the top, so bring water. The whole thing - walk up, five minutes standing around taking photos, walk down - takes about an hour. Worth doing on your first morning to get your bearings, or as a late afternoon stroll when you can't be bothered with anything more ambitious. Don't expect solitude on a sunny weekend; it's popular enough that you'll see a few families and dog walkers.