Barfield Tarn

The walk up to Barfield Tarn rewards you with one of those quiet mountain lakes that makes you wonder why everyone's crowded around the more famous tarns instead. It's a proper fell-side experience - the water sits high up in Cumbria's Lake District fringe, accessible from near Millom if you know where you're going.

Once you're up there, the tarn itself is intimate rather than dramatic. You get clear reflections on calm days, fell sides rising around you, and the real pleasure of having the place more or less to yourself. It's not a destination for casual day-trippers - the walk takes proper effort - but that's exactly why it works.

Walkers will appreciate this one. Families with young kids might find the trek bit much, but older children who enjoy real hill country will remember it. You're looking at a couple of hours minimum including the walk, so come with decent boots and weather sense. The route isn't waymarked to death, which means you need to know what you're doing or bring a map.

If you're staying at Harbour Lights Campsite down in Millom, this makes an excellent half-day or full-day push into the fells. It's the sort of spot that breaks up a park-based holiday without demanding you drive halfway across England. The landscape around here is genuinely wild - not the chocolate-box scenery, but the real thing.