Inchrye Motte

A grassy mound rising from farmland near Cupar, Inchrye Motte is the sort of historical site you either walk straight past or spend twenty minutes exploring, depending on your mood. It's a motte - that medieval earthwork style where a Norman lord would plonk a wooden keep on top of a raised platform, usually with a bailey (defensive ditch) circling the base. This one's been flattened by centuries of agriculture, but the mound is still obvious enough to spot from the road.

There's not much to do here beyond having a poke around and imagining what stood here eight or nine hundred years ago. No visitor centre, no interpretation panels, no café. It's just earth and grass and sky. That's rather the point, though - you get a genuine sense of how these things punctuated the medieval landscape without the modern clutter getting in the way.

Walkers and history types will appreciate the detour more than families looking for an afternoon's entertainment. Allow twenty minutes unless you're the sort who sits on top reading a book. It's free and accessible year-round, though muddy after rain.

If you're staying at Snugs at Logie Farm or Annsmuir, both within a few miles, this makes a decent leg-stretch rather than a destination in itself. Pair it with a proper walk in the Fife countryside and a visit to Cupar itself - a proper market town with decent pubs - and you've got yourself a decent morning out.