St Fort Hill

The walk up St Fort Hill rewards you with a proper commanding view over the Tay estuary and across to Dundee beyond. It's not a towering peak - more of a sturdy bump near Tayport - but the sight lines across the water make it worth the twenty-minute scramble from the car park. On a clear day you're looking at the Sidlaws, the Carse of Gowrie spreading out green and flat, and the railway bridge carrying trains into Scotland's east. The hill itself is largely open grassland, so there's no mucking about with dense woodland. What you see is what you get, and frankly that's enough.

Walkers and hill-baggers will find this more of a warm-up than a proper challenge, but that's precisely why it works for families. Kids won't protest about the gradient, and a five-year-old can manage it without complaint. The downside is that once you're up there, the novelty lasts about thirty minutes - there's a trig point, a few benches, and not much else. On a grey day when the visibility is shot, you're essentially climbing for the sake of climbing.

If you're basing yourselves at Larick Campsite or Tayport Links - both cracking spots with five-star reviews - you've got this on your doorstep. It pairs nicely with a morning at Tentsmuir beach or an afternoon exploring Tayport's harbour. Free to access, sunrise visits are particularly good if you're willing to get up early.