Loch Glas-choire

The loch sits tucked into the Highland landscape about twenty minutes' drive south of Newtonmore, and it's the sort of place that rewards a bit of effort to find. The water reflects whatever the sky's doing - grey and moody one day, almost Caribbean blue the next - and the surrounding hills rise up steeply enough to make you feel properly remote without needing to trek for hours.

You can walk the shoreline if you're after something gentle, or just park up and soak it in. There's no facilities to speak of, no visitor centre, no café - this is the opposite of packaged tourism. That's either brilliant or annoying depending on your outlook. Walkers and landscape photographers clearly love it. Families with young kids might find there's only about an hour's worth of mucking about before everyone gets restless.

The water's cold but swimable in summer if you're the hardy type. Bring a packed lunch if you want to make an afternoon of it. There's no entry fee that I'm aware of - it's just a loch. Go when the midges aren't at their worst: late spring or early autumn work well.

If you're based at Laggan Glamping or Invernahavon just down the road, it's a straightforward add-on to a park holiday. You're in proper Cairngorms walking country here, so it slots easily into a bigger itinerary rather than standing alone as a destination.