Huntsham Castle

The earthworks at Huntsham Castle near Tiverton are properly subtle - you won't find soaring stone walls or a gift shop. What you get instead is a chance to stand where Norman fortifications once commanded the Devon landscape, now reduced to grassy mounds and ditches that take real effort to read.

This is a motte-and-bailey site, one of hundreds thrown up across England after 1066. The mound still rises noticeably from the surrounding fields, and if you walk the perimeter you can trace the defensive ditch that once made this a formidable position. It's the sort of place that rewards a bit of effort - spend twenty minutes poking about and the geography starts making sense. A garrison once lived here. Enemies would have thought twice.

Historically minded adults will get far more from it than kids, who'll manage perhaps fifteen minutes before restlessness sets in. It's not a destination in itself. Instead, fold it into a broader walk across the Tiverton area - the castle sits well within reach of both Nirvana Glamping and Waterrow Touring Park if you're based at either for a longer stay.

Free to visit, open access. Go when the ground's dry - after rain the ditches become genuine mud traps. Spring offers the best views before undergrowth thickens, though even then you're reading an archaeological narrative rather than gazing at dramatic ruins. That's the appeal if it's your sort of thing. If you want stones and battlements, you'll be disappointed.