The Castle & Gardens of Mey

You'll spot the sandstone walls of Castle of Mey long before you reach Thurso - a proper fortress rising from the flat Caithness landscape like something from a children's book. This is the Queen Mother's old place, and walking around it feels genuinely intimate rather than stuffy and roped-off, which is refreshing for a royal residence.

The castle itself is relatively modest compared to the palatial spreads down south, and that's rather the point. Inside, you're looking at the rooms exactly as the late Queen Mother left them - her sitting room, the library, all dotted with family photos and chintz that wouldn't look out of place in a well-to-do farmhouse. It's human-scale history, not theatre.

The gardens are the real draw, though. Walled Victorian plots with proper herbaceous borders, vegetable patches, and views across to Orkney on a clear day. You can easily spend two hours wandering here, longer if you're the sort who reads every plant label.

Historical types will appreciate the medieval bones of the place, but families with restless kids might find an hour enough. The nearest campsite - Little Croft Highlands, barely twenty minutes away - makes a solid base if you're touring the far north. Go in late spring or summer when the gardens are actually in flower; winter up here is bleak and the opening hours get shorter. Admission isn't free, but it's fair value for a proper afternoon out.