Ordie Caber

The walk up Ordie Caber rewards you with proper Highland views once you've done the legwork. It's a modest peak in the Aberdeenshire hills, nothing that'll require mountaineering skills, but the climb gets your heart going and the sightlines from the top sweep across genuine Scottish landscape - rolling moorland and distant peaks rather than the manicured stuff you get down south.

Most walkers will manage this in a couple of hours round trip depending on fitness and how often you stop for breath. The path's straightforward enough, though it can be boggy after rain - bring proper boots. You'll encounter other hikers on decent weather weekends, but it's never mobbed like the better-known Cairngorms peaks.

Who should bother? Serious peak-baggers will find it a solid warm-up before tackling larger summits. Day trippers from the nearby towns will get a genuine sense of achievement without needing a week's holiday. Families with older kids (ten plus) can manage it, though younger ones might find the moorland boring on the way up. It's the views that make it worthwhile - not the destination itself.

West Bandodle is your nearest base, though it's small. If you're staying at Greenpark Leisure Ltd a few miles away, this works perfectly as a morning sortie before heading elsewhere for the afternoon. Free to visit, naturally. Go early on weekends to bag parking at the trailhead.