Hallaton (Castle Hill) Motte & Baily

The mound rises sharply from the Leicestershire countryside just outside Market Harborough, and there's something rather compelling about clambering up it. Hallaton's motte and bailey is a proper Norman earthwork - not flashy, not reconstructed, just the genuine article left to weather the centuries. You get a decent walk out of it, climbing what's basically a steep grassy pyramid that the Normans threw up around 1066-era conquest times, surrounded by its defensive bailey ditch.

It's the sort of place that appeals more to history types and serious walkers than families after a quick entertainment hit. Children will manage the climb, but they'll get restless once they've reached the top and realised the view, while decent, doesn't quite justify the huffing and puffing. Allow twenty minutes tops, unless you're into standing about reading interpretation boards (there aren't any, for what it's worth). Free to visit, obviously, since it's just a field.

What makes it work is the walk itself. The site sits among proper working countryside between Market Harborough and Hallaton village, so you can string together a decent ramble rather than just trudging to one spot and leaving. If you're based at Emily's Cut Camping a few miles away, it's an easy afternoon jaunt. The mound does look impressive from certain angles, particularly from the approach path, and there's something satisfying about seeing how the Norman builders exploited the landscape.