Upsall Castle

The ruins of Upsall Castle sit quietly on the edge of the North York Moors, a few miles south of Thirsk, commanding what must have been a properly strategic position centuries ago. What you're looking at is a 14th-century fortress reduced to its bare bones - crumbling stone walls, a tumbled gatehouse, and enough atmospheric decay to make you want to linger longer than you probably should on a breezy afternoon.

It's very much a walker's castle rather than a family attraction with ice cream facilities. There's no visitor centre, no interpretation boards spelling everything out, just the remains themselves and the landscape around them. That's either brilliant or disappointing depending on what you want from your afternoon - history types with a bit of imagination will find it absorbing; young children expecting something more interactive will get bored within twenty minutes.

Free to visit, obviously, since there's nobody there to charge you. Allow half an hour to an hour if you're exploring the site properly and taking photos. Spring and early autumn are best - the castle sits in open moorland so winter winds can be absolutely brutal, and summer midges are no joke.

If you're basing yourself at Hillside Caravan Park just down the road, Upsall makes for an easy morning detour before heading to proper Moors attractions. Woodland Lakes Lodges, a touch further out, gives you more scope for combining it with other North Yorkshire stops. The castle itself isn't a day's entertainment, but paired with moorland walks and a visit to nearby Thirsk, it slots in nicely.