Long Meg

There's something properly eerie about standing in front of Long Meg. She's a red sandstone monolith - 12 metres tall, stuck alone in a field near Carlisle with a Bronze Age stone circle gathered around her like attendants. The rock itself is striking, weathered to a deep rust colour, and the carvings on her back face are genuine mysteries. Cup-and-ring marks scored into the stone thousands of years ago catch the light differently depending on the time of day, which is the sort of thing that gets you thinking about who made them and why.

You walk out here on your own terms - it's free, no gates, no timetable. Allow twenty minutes if you're just popping over, an hour if you're the type who sits down and tries to work out what ancient peoples were on about. The surrounding stones are scattered across rough grass, so it's worth wearing boots if the ground's been wet. Families with younger kids find it compelling for twenty minutes or so, but it's really a pilgrimage for landscape photographers and stone-circle enthusiasts rather than an all-day affair.

Carlisle's about twenty minutes north, but if you're based at High Hall Farm Campsite nearby, Long Meg makes for a proper morning walk before breakfast. The Pens rather overshadow it in Cumbrian landmark terms, but that's rather the appeal - you'll have the place to yourself.